If you use Gmail as an email client, you probably have a new link to Google’s new social notification application called Google Buzz. Buzz is another attempt by Google to grab some share of the social web market. But will it add up to be enough to keep you in “Googleopolis’? Ironically,  Google Wave has created a lot of  social “buzz”, but in its current “developer sandbox” phase is extremely clunky and more importantly, hard to explain to others.  Ultimately, Google would like for you to think of Google Wave as a collaboration tool and not so much a social tool anyway. Orkut, Google’s pure social networking site has over 100 million users which is great…if you live in Brazil or India which make up about 2/3rds of those users.  They even developed Open Social, which is a set of tools to integrate common social activities on different web sites.  So why isn’t Google as synonymous with social as it is with search? Because search is about logic and social is about chance.  You know that four quarters equal a dollar but you never know when a friend is going to ask to borrow a dollar.

Although Mr. Spock might not agree,  my prediction is that adoption will be on par with some of Google’s relatively successful tools like Google Docs and Google Calendar as integration with Gmail was a foundation and not an afterthought.  Twitter, Picasa Web, Flickr and Google Reader have built in hooks and you can connect it to any site with a feed that is in your Google profile.

Just as the presenters at the launch of Google Buzz did, notice I went this whole time without dropping the “F” bomb; Facebook.  Integration to the worldwide estimated 350 million user elephant in the room was absent from the initial release and the silence was deafening. I am sure that as I type some enterprising code monkey is keying up a workaround.

Here are a few good resources that I have found to get you up to speed and help you take Buzz ‘To Infinity……’. Well, you know the rest.

Lifehacker: Google Buzz Explained

CNET: Rafe and Josh debate Google’s Buzz

TechCrunch: If Google Wave Is The Future, Google Buzz Is The Present

Official Google Buzz Videos: