Google Buzz: Mountainview's Answer to Twitter

Google's answer to Twitter is called Buzz. This is what the welcome page looks like if you (a) get an invitation; and (b) accept it.

Could it succeed? Sure.

I say that with some caveats:

(a) Buzz should, if a Gmail user opts-in, rip the user's list of Twitter followers and largely recreate the very nervous system of the other network in parallel. And this is a good thing -- it takes advantage of open APIs and fosters competition. I wouldn't worry about a bifurcated market; the platforms will adapt or die. And the competition benefits the user.

(b) The concept of 'fast-twitch' and 'slow-twitch' communications systems running in a unified interface (i.e., Twitter and email, respectively) is consistent with how users operate. Consider Facebook and Google Wave: both provide dashboards of real-time messages integrated with persistent (email-style) messages and/or discussion boards.

Twitter has a massive head of steam, to be sure, but 20 years ago Microsoft appeared to be unstoppable force too. And things are moving much more rapidly now.