A relatively new online acquaintance popped up on my screen this morning asking “who is this Jonathan Beckett, and why is he so interesting?” - the ensuing conversation mentioned Google Buzz, that I had largely forgotten since it’s launch.
This evening has been a quite unexpected voyage of discovery, and an opening of my eyes to a vibrant, interesting, funny, wise, snarky, anarchic and largely unknown community. It would appear that while the rest of the world has been busy shouting pronouncements into the air via their Twitter built soapboxes, or having their personal information stolen by Facebook, the Google Buzz community has been growing like a virus, which may be about to reach critical mass. A slow burner if ever there was one.
I had looked in on Buzz throughout the last year, but had made the same mistake that I imagine most others had; I had integrated just about every feed available to me (Flickr, Twitter, WordPress, etc) into Buzz, effectively spamming the crap out of anybody that dared look at my feed. Not the best idea in the world.
All it took was one well liked community member to patiently wait while I guiltily erased everything I had previously “shared”, then take me by the hand and make a few choice introductions.
A “boy meets world” moment.
The rest of this evening has been a revelation. Buzz is better than Twitter or Facebook - but only if you’re handed the keys to the largely unseen kingdom.
Feel free to join me on the adventure - join buzz, follow me, I’ll take up the torch, make the first introductions, and hopefully open your eyes too.