Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Landscape?

It seems like just yesterday, the top trending topic on Twitter was Google Wave.  Google Wave was supposed to change social media and connect people in a new, innovative way.  Although Waving to your friends was new and innovative, by the time you received an invite to test drive Google Wave, the hype was gone.  Now, Google wants social media users to believe that Google buzz will be the new “thing”.

Google Buzz blends with your Gmail account, weeds out the noisy posts (ex. I ate a bagel, now I’m headed to work off the calories), recommends outside conversations you should join based on your interests and posted content, allows you to view tweets from Twitter and content from Flickr, Picasa and YouTube.  Unfortunately, you are not able to post to Twitter or view others Facebook updates from Google Buzz.

Google Buzz will also allow you to make status updates by voice and even geotag your posts, allowing you to read location based updates when viewing search results on Google Maps.

Although these features are nice, three valid questions are going to be asked:

1. Will people who don’t use Gmail and don’t want to have another email account use Google Buzz?
2. Are Twitter and Facebook loyalists going to stray from their social media home(s)?
3. Will Google Buzz become another social media marketing channel?

You can filter relevant information so Google Buzz can learn and better understand your interests, while retail locations and restaurants can offer local promos to Google Buzz users by location, and journalists can break news stories and reach people located near the news event.

Google Buzz is the new “thing”.  Although Yahoo claims to have been the pioneers of Buzz, Google’s Buzz is being released during social media’s prime.  Will Google Buzz change the social media landscape?  Possibly, but not right away.