Last night something strange happened, my Firefox browser on the 8 watt machine that passes as my laptop crashed. Nothing unusual in that, it happens with a predictability you could set your stress by.

What was unusual on this occasion, was after I threatened and cajoled it back into an operating mood, a new logo had appeared on the sidebar of my GMail account. Yes I was now signed up for something called Google buzz.

For someone who makes his living working in and commenting on the online industry, it is embarrassing to admit, but unfortunately true, that I had been rather in the dark as to what Buzz actually is. Even the surprising news of the super bowl advertisement slipped past my usually senstive attennae.

The buzz on buzz today is that this is Google’s almost preemptive strike against Facebook and Twitter. The service allows you to follow (connect) with those people in your email database and communicate with them through status updates, share photos and over media, and generally build what looks a bit like a social networking service from people you’re already talking to.

Buzz brings back the instant sharing of news and status that had moved from email to Facebook and Twitter, back  into the Googleverse. My view is that Google is trying to shore up it’s position at the centre of the personal web experience, and as the entry point for many to the web.

As more people gravitate towards Facebook as their personal homepage, the amount of traffic to other leading sites from Facebook is increasing, how long before this starts to have commercial implications for Google. Presently Google’s position looks pretty unassailable, but who knows what tomorrow (or more likely the week after tomorrow) could bring.

Rob, MD, One