Google Buzz: How it will work

The world's No. 1 search engine Google has rolled out another app that will expand its Web presence. Called Google Buzz, the feature will pit it against social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Google Buzz will allow users to quickly share messages, Web links and photos with friends within its popular email service Gmail.

Google Buzz comes after the company's several not-so-successful attempts to strengthen its position in the hotly-contested social networking space.

Here's what Google Buzz will do for users.

As soon as Google Buzz service becomes active in a user's Gmail account, they can find a tab for Buzz below their inbox. On clicking the tab, users can read status updates, photos and video. Buzz updates will also show up directly in user's inbox as well as in a tab within Gmail.

According to Buzz product manager Todd Jackson, "You can open an item to comment directly because it’s a live object with an open connection to the server that gets updates in all time.

According to Google, 40 people whom users talk to through Gmail and Gchat will be automatically added as friends.

Buzz uses information from the existing email accounts of users to automatically show updates and media from people they talk to regularly. However, it will also allow users to share information privately if they want.Status messages that users publish on Google Buzz and flag as viewable to everyone will be automatically indexed by Google's search engine and be available within Google's recently launched real-time search results.

Google said users can also keep messages private by sharing only with customized groups of friends and colleagues.

Like other social services, Buzz allows users to post status updates that include text; photos from services like Google’s Picasa and Yahoo’s Flickr; videos from YouTube; and messages from Twitter. Analysts say many of its features mimic those of Facebook.

This means Buzz will eliminate the need for people to visit sites like Twitter to post updates or see those sent by people they have selected to follow.

google executives said that Google Buzz is currently not able to display messages that originated on Facebook, the world's No. 1 social network with 400 million active users.

According to Jackson, Buzz goes beyond status updates by letting people "pull in" images, video or other data from websites including Picasa, Flickr, Twitter and Google Reader.

Google Buzz will also pull in updates from outside your immediate group, such as an active conversation involving some friends and some people you aren't following. However, though users can view Twitter messages within Buzz, they will not be able to publish new messages to Twitter's service.