So everyone’s buzzing (excuse the pun) about Google’s new social feature. Is this the best thing since sliced bread or is it going to go the way of FriendFeed? if you’re not familiar with it, Google Buzz is a social sharing service that allows you to post “buzz” to your followers and publicly, and is now integrated into Gmail.

According to Google’s official blog post on the subject, their goal is “organizing the social information on the web.” now, that’s a pretty lofty objective, but I gotta call BS on that. Google Buzz isn’t about organizing the information already out there, it’s about Google getting in on some of that content creation for itself. it wants to own the next Twitter or Facebook instead of sitting on the sidelines. not that I blame them, but there it is.

So how is Google Buzz different? it doesn’t have a character limit and conversations are threaded so you can comment below the original post. (OK so there’s actually a few more differences and you can check out Monica O’Brien’s ode to Buzz for the play by play). but, honestly, that’s pretty much it and neither of these ideas are really new. Google Buzz is decidedly unoriginal (for more on this check out TechCrunch’s superbly titled If Google Wave is the Future, Google Buzz is the Present). There’s nothing new here. Threaded comments have been around since online forums, the idea of social sharing is so 2005, and choosing who to follow is, well, have you heard of Twitter?

Despite this though, Google Buzz has one huge advantage over other up-and-coming services – its huge built-in user base. If it weren’t for Gmail integration, Google Buzz would be a goner. As is, Google Buzz has million of users from the get-go who have been trained to pay attention to that bolded indicator that there are new things to be read. We just can’t help checking it out.

Yet, Google Buzz’s unoriginality is not its downfall. It’s a nice amalgamation of some other social services and because of the comment threads, it really allows for multi-person conversation in a way that Twitter doesn’t. Integration with Gmail makes it easy for users to instantly find people they want to follow and share with. It’s like taking a shortcut to a community, and who doesn’t love shortcuts?

Follow me on Google Buzz.

Follow Megan Berry on Twitter: twitter.com/meganberry

By mark Memmott

Yes, it’s snowing again in much of the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast. Earlier, we rounded up some of the latest reports from cities that are in the way of the latest blizzard.

And we shouldn’t neglect the bad weather in other parts of the nation, especially California. as the Los Angeles Times reports:

A cold storm belted Southern California with rain and snow Tuesday, flooding streets and leaving residents in foothill neighborhoods wondering whether saturated hillsides would withstand the latest onslaught of wet weather.

Other stories making headlines include:

– BBC News — Afghan Avalanche Toll Exceeds 150: “At least 150 people have been killed in a series of avalanches that have blocked a mountain pass north of Kabul, Afghan officials say. Rescuers are trying to reach hundreds more people who are trapped in their vehicles in the Salang Pass. Some 2,500 people have been rescued so far, but scores more are feared buried following several days of heavy snow.”

Also from Afghanistan, on Morning Edition: NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports on how U.S. Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand province are gearing up for a major offensive against a Taliban stronghold:

– the Associated Press — Honda Expands Recall: “Honda Motor Co. is adding more than 378,000 cars to an existing safety recall for air bag inflation problems, the company said Tuesday. the company will replace the driver’s side air bag inflator on the cars because they can deploy with too much pressure, causing the inflator to rupture and injure or kill the driver. the recall now affects more than 822,000 vehicles, including certain 2001 and 2002 Accord sedans, Civic compacts, Odyssey minivans, CR-V small sport utility vehicles and some 2002 Acura TL sedans.”

– Reuters — “Were Red Flags Missed?” Before Toyota Recall: “As the U.S. Congress gears up to delve into Toyota Motor Corp’s massive global vehicle recall, the question they face is whether the automaker and regulators misread or ignored rising consumer complaints. Complaints about unintended acceleration rose sharply from model years 2002 to 2007 — a period when Toyota expanded its use of electronic throttle controls, according to an analysis of data compiled by Safety Research and Strategies. but by 2007, only two formal federal investigations had been launched.”

Update at 9:15 a.m. ET. from Shanghai, NPR’s Louisa Lim wrapped up the Honda and Toyota news:

– PC Magazine — Google Launches Buzz: “Google’s new social layer-cake service, Google Buzz, pays lip service to integration with non-Google apps like Twitter. but if Google gets its way, Twitter and Facebook will only be so much noise outside the increasingly closed world of Google.”

The code name for Google’s new Buzz product? Taco Town. not a grandiose reference to composers long since passed on, or beautiful vacation spots around the world, as other companies have done, but instead, an ode to good-tasting greasy food.

While Google obviously thought “Buzz” was a better name for their new aggregation play than Taco Town, despite archrival Yahoo! having used the name first, you can see tacos as part of today’s launch, with a delicious-looking taco gracing the “Just the good stuff” description on the main Google Buzz page, and, throughout the many screenshots and demo video, the individual’s name read as “Ted Taco”.

If It’s A Taco, it must be good Stuff
The Notorious Ted Taco from Google Buzz
So where does Taco Town come from? Assuming Google didn’t name it after one of the restaurants that dot the US, including establishments in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and Carthage, Missouri, the Taco Town name hearkens back to a satirical commercial from Saturday Night Live, called “Taco Town”, where Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg go out for Mexican food, only to find their delicious dish to be a challenge, with layer upon salivating later being added to the entree.

The announcer, introducing the new taco at Taco Town, teases with his description:

“We take a crunchy, all-beef taco, smother it in nacho cheese, lettuce, tomato and our special southwestern sauce. Then we wrap it in a soft, flour tortilla with a layer of refried beans in-between…” adding on… “Then we wrap that in a savory corn tortilla with a middle layer of Monterey Jack cheese…” and later… “And it gets even awesomer, when we take a deep-fried gordita shell, smear on a little of our special “guacamolito” sauce and wrap that around the outside…”, “But it gets even bigger! Because we bake it in a corn husk filled with pico de gallo, then then wrap that in an authentic Parisian crepe, filled with egg, gruyere, merguez sausage and Portobello mushroom….” followed by more layers including a Chicago style deep dish meat lovers pizza, rolled in a blueberry pancake, fried golden brown, and served with “spicy vegetarian chili”.As the faux commercial says, ” It’s 15 great tastes all rolled into one.” you can see it embedded below, provided Hulu supports your country.
With one’s social graph and social activity fractured asunder all over the Web, you can see why Google would want to roll all these great tastes together into one product, Buzz. the company also likely sees the difficulty in taking our many diverse activities, social graphs, and privacy concerns as different layers that must be combined to deliver a compelling offering.

Regardless of what Yahoo! and Microsoft might think about the new service, or its name, I think we can all agree it looks a lot better than “Google Taco Town”.