ChrisPosterous

When I post to Twitter, since I am no Scoble, I guarantee my thoughts are lost immediately among the noise. Sure, there are a handful (and I mean handful) of folks that actually read every Tweet I transmit, but for the most part, it might as well be a grain of sand at the bottom of the ocean. I think that is the inherent problem with Twitter - unless you are already known, you remain unknown. Friendfeed started the democratization process of Twitter by adding the ability to start a conversation around a Tweet. A good start. And since the celebs were not gumming up the works, it was easier to be signal versus noise. But like all good things, FriendFeed got absorbed by a competitor and started to die on the vine. The relevancy and quality started to drop for small guys, as the big guys ate up most of the bandwidth and mindshare. Quality waned.

Posterous is a good example of a service with quality. Compared to Tumblr, at least in my experience, getting followers is not a result of popularity (or as they call it, Tumblarity). It's the result of quality posts being observed by quality people enjoying what you have to say and adding to it with comments. I am always surprised that when I hit a chord with readers on a particular topic how many actually view a post. In some cases, thousands of readers. I never see that type of activity in Tumblr, or even on Chris' Tech Blog. This is an example of a great community and one where you can give to and take from with every interaction. Quality.

My current impression of Buzz is that it is that type of community - more Posterous and less Tumblr. Sure, some of the mega stars are already doing their expected "land grabs" and hogging huge chunks of my inbox, but in most cases, they are listening too. In the past if one of these prolific posters sent out a tweet, good luck getting their attention with a reply. But with Buzz, there seems to be a layer of trust that makes the conversation more two-way. And this is a great thing. Sure, ego will definitely rear its ugly head at some point, but I agree with a poster I read this morning on a Buzz thread who said that maybe, because our real names are known, it will make the conversation more sincere, more real. I absolutely believe that. I see that already. And this to me is what quality is all about.

So Google, here is my request for Buzz. Keep innovating and pushing this tool on a weekly basis. Don't let it stagnate. Keep it safe and don't let it turn into a playground for trolls and haters. And one last thing, please don't turn it into another "island of misfit toys" that does not play well with the rest of the social ecosphere. You have the power to organize and make sense of all the streams we wrestle with just like you made sense out of search and the internet in general. We are watching and hoping. Don't let us down.