Everybody mark today in your calendars, because it’s a big day. However, while we don’t know what kind of day it is just yet, we know there are only two options:

1) Google releases Google Buzz and revolutionizes the way people communicate

2) Google releases Google Buzz that, like Google wave, doesn’t do much of anything.

Google Buzz is basically an integration of Flickr, Picasa, Twitter and Google Reader (wait, what??) into your Gmail account. It also carries heavy Facebook and YouTube tendencies; with it’s pulling of pictures and video off of messages and web links. Like other social networking sites, it gives you the ability to post to everyone, or to a limited number of people. It also includes the ability sent directly to a friend, like an @-reply or a wall post. In fact, you actually type “@your friend’s email”. Why do you need the @ sign? Shouldn’t just entering the email cover it? Also, comments to your posts are sent to your inbox, which is a nice touch and it claims to pull info from posts that you will find useful. If this means that it tracks your use of GB, then that sounds like a cool feature, though I read so much random stuff online I don’t know if it would help me much.

This sounds like an amazing idea, but I really don’t see myself using it. For one, very few of my friends I communicate with regularly have a Gmail account. We use SMS and work email addresses for the most part. I did sign up though – because, well, I’m a geek. I haven’t tried it out too much yet, though maybe that could be a follow up post to this one if you guys want. I’m hoping that it will pull emails and such off of regular emails; I think that could be really useful. And though I don’t understand it at all, I will concede that it’s inclusion in Google Reader makes me more likely to use it, on some small scale. My GR is always open at work and I have the widget on my MacBook Pro, so it’s always readily accessible.

I’ll also have to see how easy this is to use on my 9550. I haven’t been able to track down an app for it yet, so there might not be one for the BlackBerry – though it wouldn’t surprise me if there was one for Android…and who knows about for the iPhone, it has an app for everything, but Google and Apple are competing so hard that the default iPhone search engine is Bing. (Yea, you know, Bing…the MICROSOFT search engine! How crazy is that!? Sorry, way off topic. I just think that’s hilarious!)

For more info, including a nifty video, head over to buzz.google.com

Guru Ricky