Why buzz failed

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Part email, part Facebook, part Twitter, part Friendfeed, part Foursquare. You can "follow" people, share stuff like links and photos, add comments, "check in" from locations, and see what your friends are Buzzing.

But like many Google services, it lacks any imagination or compelling reasons to use it. Starting with the name, a rip-off from Yahoo. As a result, it's probably not a threat to any of the services it's trying to disrupt.

The biggest site that it will compete with is obviously Facebook, but also Twitter, and on mobile phones, apps like Facebook and Foursquare. The flip side of bundling features together is that room to fail gracefully disappears, because interdependencies between them spiral out of control. Buzz makes it more costly to improve Gmail, and vice versa. Better that each was an independent service. Purpose, not product. It aggregates tremendous amounts of stuff — but instead of simplifying it, it simply stitches everything together.

It feels a little bit like Buzz was the product of raw engineering talent, designed without a purpose in mind. Generosity, not greed please note — Josh, part of the Buzz team, points out in the comments that a more generous Buzz is forthcoming. Generous products and services give back, creating thriving ecosystems where everyone can win.