Tab Reducing Buzz

Today, Google announced their newest social media service Buzz.  It will be integrated into GMail, taking away any need for setup, and will also be available for mobile phones at buzz.google.com.  The web app for iPhone and Android will work with Google Maps (also updated today) using the phone’s GPS to show the location-based public Buzz content provided by other mobile users.  If that’s all a bit hazy still, in typical fashion, Google has released a video explaining Buzz.

Mobile schmobile.  What we really think excites office workers is the ability to cross-post and cut down on windows/tabs that they might have open while they work – the ones that they minimize when they hear footsteps approaching.  With the ability to check and post status updates, videos and pictures, Google is making it easier for workers to avoid such easily recognizable websites such as Facebook and Twitter.  With the different arrangements and themes available on GMail, it only adds to the disguise.  A reduction in tabs or items in the taskbar leaves room for more work-related items (the stuff that they should be doing) while they’re still able to keep up with all their microblogging addictions in one place (the stuff that they’re really doing).  Already being used to circumvent blocks on chat client AIM, GMail really is turning into the Holy Grail for office workers looking to “get around the system” and know what all of their friends ate for breakfast and how drunk people they haven’t seen in years got over the weekend.

[via Daily Digital and Google]