Google announces Google Buzz

Today in a live press event, Google announced Google Buzz. They're calling it "a new way to share." It is launching today and will continue rolling out over the next few days. Google notes that this is not a finished product. They are continuoulsy pushing it to integrate with more and more services. Buzz will also launch as an enterprise product and "will change the way businesses communicate."

Here are the 5 key features of Buzz:

1. Auto-following -  you automatically follow people you contact frequently
2. Rich, fast sharing experience - you can share photos that are available via other media sites (such as Flickr)
3. Public and private sharing - you can post things for the whol world to see, or just to specific groups of people
4. Inbox integration - instead of having email notifications, special Buzz items come into your Inbox and show updates in real-time (using @ replies)
5. Just the good stuff - Buzz learns from things that you like and hides the things that you don't

3 new mobile product experiences launching today:

1. Use Buzz from Google.com - post a Buzz from a geotagged location
2. Buzz application (iPhone or Android) - See what people around you are saying
   
3. Update to Google Mobile Maps - Buzz layer added, allowing you to see nearby Buzzes and lets you post a Buzz along with a picture of where you are.

The audience asked questions regarding privacy and functionality. Google stressed the importance of privacy as being a key reason in adding in the ability to decide who can see what. This also holds true of your Buzz profile. You will be able to select what you want showing on there as well. Future Google Wave integration was hinted to as well. Things such as real-time Buzz updates were derived from Wave technology.

As of now, there will not be any Facebook integration. Tweets can be pulled into Buzz, but not the other way around. However, this could become possible in the future. It was also noted that Buzzes, like Tweets, will show up in real-time on Google search (assuming the Buzz is public) and will not be given any sort of pagerank preference.

Support for Google Buzz in Maps and via Google's website is coming to BlackBerry soon. Windows Mobile and the Nokia S60 already have access via Google Maps, and will also be getting access via Google's site soon.

To learn more about Buzz, visit the Official Google Buzz website.