Mashable is one huge blog, a very large competitor to Inside the Webb and what I wish we could be someday! They run some amazing articles about social networking, social media, tech news, and everything internet related. They usually have articles hitting the front page of Digg and Delicious, gaining well into 1500+ ReTweets and tons of Stumbles: bottom line, their blog is huge!
What I’ve noticed recently is how much they’re started to endorse Google Buzz. Now this isn’t anything new, as Buzz has blown up since it first launched a few weeks ago. My question is why is Mashable jumping on the bandwagon so fast? Clearly they have some good content for it, but is there really a future for Buzz?
Why Hit the Bandwagon so Hard Right Away?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not writing this article to bash Mashable at all. Quite the opposite – I’m interested in their business strategies! I find their blog to be one of the most popular, if not the most popular social media blog on the web today. As soon as Google Buzz announced their launch in February, Mashable has added small Buzz widgets to most articles.
I found this really weird, as most people really aren’t even using Buzz yet. I know a few people online who are trying to use Buzz for promotion, but none of my friends are on it. Hell, most of my friends don’t even know what it is!
So why make all of this fuss? As you can see from the screenshot above, Mashable is running Buzz widgets on most posts. But along with that, they’ve also created a Buzz group and have it advertised all over the header of the page. This isn’t a bother at all, but does anybody really use Google’s Buzz?
First Big into Social Networking means Less Competition
I have figured it relates to competition. If Mashable has such a huge audience, maybe by promoting Google’s Buzz they can draw more and more people to use it. This would mean that not only would they have more fans through Buzz, but more people would start sharing their articles through the service as well. This would allow them to dominate many aspects of the network, and I’m sure Google must be taking notice.
I can only speculate where it would go from here. I don’t think Google is paying Mashable in any way to run these blocks and profile links, not their style. But Buzz really has started to take off in such a short time, and with Mashable backing the service there’s very small chance of failure. Whatever the outcome, I wish Google the best of luck with the new service. Whenever I have some free time I do plan on sitting down and giving it a try – it could be the next big web app!
What are your thoughts on the matter? Am I reading too deeply into this, or is Mashable really trying to grow Google Buzz’s popularity with their immense fanbase of internet users? Let me know, we have a comments section.
