Twitter vs Buzz

First, I admit that I haven’t used Google’s Buzz much. I have it linked to my Google Reader to share articles, but that’s it. On the other hand, I’ve been using Twitter quite a bit.

Tonight I saw that Mashable posted a link to their Buzz stream, so I followed them.

And now I’m perplexed by a few questions: Why would one choose Twitter over Google Buzz, or Buzz over Twitter? And why would anyone use both?

Twitter

As a former/reformed IT-guy, the recent and ongoing technical issues experienced with Twitter is disgusting. Besides the issues themselves, I’m also a bit irked by the lack of outcry by Twitter users. I mean, there is a little complaining going on, but there’s been no talk of a mass exodus in as an attempt to convince Twitter to do any better.

Further, I’m finding it hard to identify anything that I really *like* about it. I like the ‘micro-blogging’ service both for posting my own short thoughts and passing on links, and also for getting the same from others. But in a sense, I don’t really use Twitter itself. I hate the website interface and do all of my Twitter interactions through Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or other 3rd party apps. And Tweetdeck supports Buzz now, so from a user perspective, there’s little difference.

The other, and much bigger, issue I have with Twitter is that it has become much less of a social networking tool and more of a social marketing tool. Despite all the talk about ‘engagement’ and ‘relationship building’, if I stopped following everyone who was ultimately trying to sell me something, I’d be following very few indeed.

Google Buzz

So, for me, based on how I use ‘micro-blogging’, Buzz is becoming more and more attractive as a more reliable alternative.

The downside is that I don’t know anyone else using Buzz. And while I have been using GoogleApps for a long while, I had to create a new Gmail account just for Buzz and I haven’t yet merged my contacts.

The other concern is, well, Buzz is a Google product. If you haven’t read it, check out 5 Reasons You Should Be Afraid of Google on Cracked.com.

Different, but the same

When it comes to competition, I find that I choose one solution per niche and use it exclusively. For example, while I have a profile on Plaxo and SmallerIndiana (and until recently, FastPitch… and I refuse to provide a link), I use LinkedIn exclusively for my business networking needs.

For keeping up with friends and family, I dropped MySpace and Yahoo in favor of Facebook (until I recently dropped FB preemptively in favor of GoogleMe).  I was never inclined to investigate Orkut or any others.

For video sharing, I use YouTube, but not Vimeo. For pictures, I use Picasa and not Flickr. It seems that there is just too much redundancy to use multiple services for the same thing.

Though Tweetdeck makes it easy to use both Twitter and Buzz, I have a feeling that I will eventually have to choose one and drop the other. As someone NOT engaged in online marketing, cross-posting to both seems tedious and counter-productive.

Is this how most people approach their online social networks?

What are your thoughts? Using Buzz and not Twitter? Refuse to use Buzz? Do you use multiple nearly-equivalent services? I’d like to hear about it.