Unfortunately, I didn't, so I don't.

Yesterday there were a few stories circulating the web hinting that today Google would release a new feature for Gmail which was touted as being either a Twitter-killer, or a Facebook-killer, depending on which one you read.

I held off writing a piece about that, because until an official press release comes out you never know who to trust, and there were no reliable sources discussing it anyway.

Today, the Gmail blog (and Google blog) both published an article announcing Google Buzz, an add-on to Gmail, which is being rolled out over the next couple of days.

Yesterday I was sceptical, because to be honest, I don't like Gmail all that much. Other Google products in the social sphere have also been disappointing, like Orkut (only big in Brazil) and Wave (which is not yet out of beta, and which I also dislike anyway).

The big obstacle in the way of Buzz being a Twitter killer is that it is integrated into Gmail, which puts it behind the 8ball because gmail is such a user-unfriendly interface, whereas Twitter is so simple.  I suspect it would have been better to introduce a new, simple product with a nice interface rather than try to staple something on to Gmail.

What is Buzz?
Buzz, which you can kind of get from the name, is Google's next attempt at entering the social media sphere. It uses your current social network (i.e. your Gmail contacts) with new functionality to help you ' talk with them about things that are interesting you at the time'. Google is touting it as a new way to organise the social web.

It seems to be using a bit of the Google Wave technology, where you can easily share photo's, video's and links with a group, and any responses to things you post will get sent to your email where they are not 'static emails'  but rather ' live conversations' (like they tried to do with Google Wave).

You can also make things 'available to the whole world' if you want, by opening up your privacy settings.

Like Twitter you can follow people and find out what they are doing and sharing online, and like Twitter it uses @replies.


Why Did Google Do It?
Google is basically built on ad sales, and with more people spending time on non-Google social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, this is reducing their ability to advertise.  With this new tool they hope to get a piece of the addictive-pie that is social media, and therefore be able to sell more ads on Gmail.

It is integratable with Twitter and Flickr already, with other sites likely to be introduced in the future, so basically it is hoping that you will stay on a Google site to view all your other social media information.

Interesting Features
Their mobile version is not just the small screen friendly version of the normal site, but also has an addition to the "what are you doing now"  status update, you can add a ' Where were you when you said that'  kind of thing. That is awesome if you are a Facebook stalker, you can take it to a whole new level.

My prediction
This is not a Twitter or Facebook killer.

If Google were a cake, would it look like this?

(photo's courtesy of ladyironchef.com and herecomesthefood.com.au).

Yesterday I visited the Adriano Zumbo patisserie in Balmain (made famous by MasterChef) and found this delicious looking Google-named cake. For those interested (and who wouldn't be), it is a passionfruit and banana cream tart.

For those working in online marketing, see if you can expense it like I did (kidding!).

Google's venture capital arm, Google Ventures, has backed Viglink, an affiliate startup , with an undisclosed amount of funding.(Other investors come from Google's Executive and LinkedIn).

Viglinks aim is spelled out in their home page meta title 'Affiliate Every Link On The Web With Viglink'. Their hook to website owners is "Unlock the power of your site's links and earn extra money from your site automatically, transparently and honestly.".

The idea is that you use a bit of javascript on your site, and then that instantly turns every link on your page into an affiliate link, letting you know if anyone from your site made a purchase on one of your linked sites.

Viglink has become a member of tonnes of affiliate networks across the web so that the commerce sites recognise a Viglink customer when they get one. If someone buys after using one of your links, Viglink will take a commission, but original signup is free, and non-exclusive.

Viglink won't go on those links you are already monetising, but just on those you haven't. For example, if you write a blog post mentioning a commerce site, (one of which you aren't an affiliate), Viglink will automatically add some script so that if anyone who clicks on that links buys on that commerce site, you get paid commission.

Google has given the program a clean bill of health (as it should, it is an investor), so webmasters don't need to worry about these 'paid' links being in any violation of Google rules.

The strange thing is though, if Viglink reached its goal of "Affiliate every link on the web", then;

1. If Google continued to follow those links and give them authority, their own algorithm, heavily influenced by linking itself, could be skewed towards commercial linking opportunities (benefiting those site owners who have the most affiliate links to them).Or
2. If they ignore those links, giving them no influence, any site with Viglink on it would never be able to 'recommend' any other site.

So it seems a strange kind of investment to me...unless Google has something up their sleeve regarding reducing the weight of links...

While writing the post below on Bing, I thought I would check out Google to compare, and saw some wierd results for the term 'hairdresser'. The page appears to be 'sectioned' ;



You can see it has 3 sections;
1. Includes images, a result from the job guides unfortunately titled 'Police Officer', and another occupation entry
2. Includes an expansion of the searched term to 'Hairdresser games' - This left me a bit bewildered, maybe it is a new fad to play hairdressing games?
3. Includes the expected Local business results, Toni and Guy, other 'local' results, and Wikipedia.

To me it seems that the third segment contains the results we are used to. But since Google is always going on about adjusting the algorithm for intent, we might infer that 'recruitment' and 'games' are two of the big new trends in searching online.

If you search for accounting, builders, bakery, SEO, etc, you get the normal results at the moment.