So.. is Buzz just 'Wave' but squashed into gmail?

It depends who or what you read.

For me it's just as bemusing as Wave, in that I'm still figuring out if it is more useful as an info source or easier for me to 'connect' than via my 3 existing (pretty ubiquitous) channels of Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook.

Actually - I have been thinking of trimming down my Facebook friend's as I just can't absorb or process the myriad of status updates from (some) nebulous 'friends'.
I don't mean that in a dismissive way, I've probably accepted some friend requests in the past with good intention but as I've used it more and more, I realise that I need to trim down to retain just those with real resonance and a reciprocal connection / affection.

My wider work/social/life network may be best served via twitter.. although some would argue that that should be clearly one OR the other not the hybrid usage I have it for on occasion.

So - Buzz.. better than the triad mentioned above? A new layer of connections and saring or a subset of detail I finf it hard to give time or headspace to? A coherent social network rising from the GoogleSoup which will ultimately dominate the web?

Possibly - but only when it is free from Googlemail. I'm in mail mode to read 1 to 1 long hand messages, not to browse interesting articles or comment on photos.

A standalone twitter-like presence for Buzz would serve it better I think. Though the iphone App helps me differentiate form email nicely, to be fair.

There is a great succinct round up of what Buzz hopes to be is here at techcrunch:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/09/if-google-wave-is-the-future-google-buzz-is-the-present/

 I watched the Googlebuzz launch vid and it all looks great but I may be missing something - not all my contacts are on googlemail (by a long way) so facebook or twitter will still be the way to share photos / videos or external sites. Or maybe I've missed something in that.

Buzz was launched with some degree of pushback from the 200 million (I think?) Gmail users who were concerned about how to control posts / published contacts etc.. but Google seems to have quickly made privacy settings changes or at least clarified options for users, which is laudable.

"We've been getting feedback via the Gmail help forums and emails from friends and family, and we've also been able to do something new: read the buzz about Buzz itself. We quickly realized that we didn't get everything quite right. We're very sorry for the concern we've caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We'll continue to do so."

I'll spend more time noodling with Buzz for a while but I can feel the urge to abandon it as I did for Wave .. which could be a it premature perhaps!