Bored? Tired of the games on your mobile phone? Try this new sport: buzzard watching -- spotting who is using Buzz in your area. 
At the same time it introduced Buzz, Google also unveiled a new version of its mobile Google Maps application for Android phones. Version 4.0 of Maps has Buzz firmly integrated into it -- you can send a location-based Buzz directly from Maps, for example. But what I found interesting was a new layer (Maps offers layers such as Traffic and Latitude that adds new info to your map) called Buzz. It lets you read the messages from Buzz users as pop-ups from their locations on the aps.
At first, I thought this was of mild interest, until a friend pointed out that, at least for now, it was a great way to find out where the more tech-savvy people were. Intrigued, I decided to go Buzz watching in the New York City area.
For example, when I checked the map of Manhattan this morning, the theater district was crowded with tiny balloons indicating Buzz messages, while the Upper East Side had practically none. Were all the Eastsiders at work? Or simply not interested in Google's latest fad?
Queens also seemed to have few buzzards sending out messages,
while Brooklyn showed small flocks in several neighborhoods, including near Brooklyn College (big surprise), Park Slope (where there are probably a lot of young families tracking each other), and the working-class neighborhoods of Bay Ridge/Sunset Park. Staten Island was bereft except for an active group in the center of the borough, while the Bronx had a healthy number scattered rather evenly around.
(And, of course, each buzz included a full address.)
I have to admit that it was fun tapping on the little balloons, picking up complaints about going to work in the snow, a query about whether it's preferable to have a stroke or a heart attack, and one sweetly romantic message declaring, "I have you that is like I have everything!"
In fact, I even decided to travel a bit, and went to Anchorage, Alaska, which was buzzing away with comments about Buzz and one ecstatic exclamation of "Ice cream!" I smiled at that, until I saw it came from a local cancer hospital.
Back in the late 1950s/early 1960s, a popular TV show called Naked City used to end with the narrator intoning, "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." Well, it's now become a lot easier to follow all the stories around your city. Just be aware that people may be following your story as well.
At the same time it introduced Buzz, Google also unveiled a new version of its mobile Google Maps application for Android phones. Version 4.0 of Maps has Buzz firmly integrated into it -- you can send a location-based Buzz directly from Maps, for example. But what I found interesting was a new layer (Maps offers layers such as Traffic and Latitude that adds new info to your map) called Buzz. It lets you read the messages from Buzz users as pop-ups from their locations on the aps.
At first, I thought this was of mild interest, until a friend pointed out that, at least for now, it was a great way to find out where the more tech-savvy people were. Intrigued, I decided to go Buzz watching in the New York City area.
For example, when I checked the map of Manhattan this morning, the theater district was crowded with tiny balloons indicating Buzz messages, while the Upper East Side had practically none. Were all the Eastsiders at work? Or simply not interested in Google's latest fad?
Queens also seemed to have few buzzards sending out messages,
while Brooklyn showed small flocks in several neighborhoods, including near Brooklyn College (big surprise), Park Slope (where there are probably a lot of young families tracking each other), and the working-class neighborhoods of Bay Ridge/Sunset Park. Staten Island was bereft except for an active group in the center of the borough, while the Bronx had a healthy number scattered rather evenly around.
(And, of course, each buzz included a full address.)
I have to admit that it was fun tapping on the little balloons, picking up complaints about going to work in the snow, a query about whether it's preferable to have a stroke or a heart attack, and one sweetly romantic message declaring, "I have you that is like I have everything!"
In fact, I even decided to travel a bit, and went to Anchorage, Alaska, which was buzzing away with comments about Buzz and one ecstatic exclamation of "Ice cream!" I smiled at that, until I saw it came from a local cancer hospital.
Back in the late 1950s/early 1960s, a popular TV show called Naked City used to end with the narrator intoning, "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." Well, it's now become a lot easier to follow all the stories around your city. Just be aware that people may be following your story as well.
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