Though there are more technical reviews available, I thought I might write a review on a layman’s experience. Keep in mind that Google Buzz, which is barely a week old, is likely to change a lot in the coming days and weeks. For example, within the time I started this draft yesterday up to today, I was given the option to integrate Twitter, Picasa, YouTube, Flickr, and other social sites into my Google Buzz. I suspect Buzz will change a great deal, into a more robust service.

The Gmail Factor
Google Buzz is integrated into  Gmail. I’m not a huge Gmail user, though I have had an account almost right from its beginnings. I tend to use Gmail more as an SMTP server for my LonePrairie email, as well as a backup account. Buzz is integrated right into my Gmail, which isn’t as useful for me since my visits to the actual Gmail site are more to delete and clear out the “sent” mail folder or the occasional email that arrives in the inbox. Low Gmail usage means I’m not fully used to the way it works; I’m still used to my Thunderbird email program and how it processes emails and replies. I suspect that a heavy Gmail user will find Buzz more of a natural extension of what they are already doing. What this means for me is that it is less intuitive for a Gmail user like myself to use Buzz; I prefer to go to the stand-alone sites like Facebook and Twitter.

So. Having said that…

Users Only
Buzz can be read by anyone, but only a person with a Google account can leave comments. The problem with Buzz being only available to other Google account owners is the same problem as only my Facebook friends commenting on my status updates there, and only Twitter users taking part on Twitter. It’s the same as a blog requiring registration, and so on. I don’t consider that too much of an inequality.

However, the thought of having three sites with status updates and then three subsequent separate conversations going on with these status updates is a bit much. I did link my Twitter account to Buzz for a day, and my Twitter account is already linked to my Facebook status, but that left me with triple the conversations on the same status update.

It also left me with an email in my Gmail inbox every time I Tweeted, since all Buzz activity is saved in Gmail and that means a copy ends up in my Thunderbird email sfotware. That got annoying extremely fast, and led me to remove Twitter integration from my Buzz account. That leads me to the next issue: that integration with Gmail.

Gmail Integration
I don’t need nor want my Buzz conversations saved in a thread in my Gmail. I know why they do it — it allows people to respond to the conversations in Buzz as they can now respond with email. If I was a heavy Gmail user, or maybe used my mobile to access and use Gmail, this would be a really nice feature.

I don’t.

Gmail is an incidental thing that I don’t use much, as I already said.

Since I’m using Thuderbird to access Gmail quite often, it means I end up with a seemingly endless supply of copies of any activity on Buzz. Excessive. I just don’t want it with my Gmail.

Twitter feels like microblogging, whereas Buzz feels like dangerously public email. Having had the experience of sending a private email to the wrong person with negative results, I’m wary of anything that would even lend a hint of something similar happening, even if it was my mistake (thought I was working on an email, posted it on Buzz instead). Sounds silly, but I’m wary about it.

Greek Conversations
Since I’ve connected my Twitter updates to my Facebook status, I don’t feel like I’m babysitting two social network services quite so much. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are conversations happening on Facebook and conversations happening on Twitter (with the @replies) that are doubling up on the same update.

I generally hadn’t used (until lately) the Twitter @replies or direct messages much; they don’t feel like a conversation to me, since they are too random and aren’t arranged in a logical threaded format. My Twitter page looks incohesive when it’s filled with a bunch of @replies, and I don’t like looking at other people’s Twitter pages when they’re like that, either. If I want to make sense of it, I have to chase down their conversations. Who has time for that? Plus, I’m using my Twitter account as a kind of microblog of the mundane, funneling it to my blog’s front page. The @replies really fall apart in that setting, since it makes even less sense to see them there.

As I told my friend Will, one of the key elements that I like about Google Buzz (and also Facebook, for that matter) is that the discussion is indented and contained, or threaded, beneath the update it belongs to. It isn’t spread about on a wide array of accounts like the Twitter @replies, which leave me sometimes feeling like I’m chasing a rabbit around, following link after link to see what a reply is in regards to. This allows me to integrate Buzz on my blog in a similar fashion as Twitter, yet it allows me to hide the comments but leave a link so people can read them all contained in one place if they want to. No more confusing @ and # symbols for those who aren’t used to Twitter.

Twitter looks like Greek to someone not familiar with it, and when it is out of the context of the Twitter setting.

Social Skills
Essentially, I see a lot of overlap in the three. There’s an element of conversation, old-school forums, blog commenting, status updates — I’ve not fully decided on how best to reach the most people, and so I use all three as of yet. I tend to get more comments on updates over at Facebook, though this could be merely because the concentrated group of people that know me are more likely to leave a comment.

Facebook is still, hands down, the social site. Granted, I get tired of the farms and mafia and fish, but it is a truer social site where you find old friends and share photos and plan events and keep in touch better than you might just by email. Twitter is less social and more about microblogging and some basic conversation in forced short replies with followers, not friends. Buzz feels like public email, or a fast and easy way to set up a personal threaded conversation or forum.

You can see my Google profile here, as well as my initial attempts at Buzz usage. My initial conversation regarding the first attempts to use Buzz can be found here.