Google launches `Buzz' to take on Twitter and Facebook

Global search giant Google, earlier this week, unveiled Buzz, a new social networking platform that lets users manage and engage in social activities, via Gmail, the company's email programme.

The platform has been described as a catch-all product by people who have used it.

With Buzz, users can share multimedia and update their status for friends to see. They can even share their location information to help connect with others in their area.

According to analysts, Google's Buzz poses a direct challenge to both Twitter and Facebook.

However, a day after its launch privacy concerns have been raised due to a feature in the product that compiles a list of the Gmail contacts who users frequently interact with via email or chat. Buzz goes about making a list of the Gmail contacts and makes it public, allowing strangers to see whom Buzz users have been in contact with.
 
Users who have noted the issue have raised concerns about possibilities such as husbands or wives discovering their spouses have been exchanging emails or chats with old flames and bosses coming across subordinates' emails with executives at competitors.

Though such a possibility may not be farfetched, it is not quite as bad as it might seem. Buzz comes with some mitigating factors built in. Buzz only shares information about other users that have set up public profiles in Google, currently most Gmail users are not publicly listed by the service and users can also 'unfollow' people who they do not want to be linked to.