So this week Google launches it social network: Buzz , a interesting next step for Google. Already folks are asking will 350 million Facebook users start switching, or at least the 160 million plus Gmail users who might be on Facebook? Buzz as I am starting to understand creates the option of integrating the many tools already available with gmail  blogger , maps, chat, sites, videos and more gmail/gapps tools….into one seamless entity all interconnected and able to help heighten my profile, information and news to a social network I create using these tools . Today I log into my yahoo mail and I am told at all times I can find out about what my contacts are up to, send message etc…a similar interface in the making by Yahoo with a different flavor. In tandem  Facebook Connect is available for developers allowing users to bring their identity and connections everywhere… so by using Facebook as your entry point updates, photos, wall posts, etc… these can be integrated with your twitter, blogs, wetpaint, mobile phone, and more……….

Quickly in the last few months suddenly we are seeing a more aggressive shift of engaging users on a variety of social networks, and portals like Google and Yahoo, to expand their presence and information to a large audience in real time. The idea is if I do a profile update in Facebook then my twitter feed picks this up, as would my blog, and my cell phone or even maybe my own web site. A one stop shop update for all about me!

There is no doubt this is kind of cool, and cuts down on having to post multiple times information or updates on my various Web 2.0 tools. The more I reflect on this, and with the framework that social networks default to public and you have to go and tweek the settings and parameters to make them private, I am realizing that we are entering a new dynamic where there is a push to be public as much as possible to as many of people as possible with our own information, updates, musing and more….. I am not going to be a judge on this, because to be honest I am still trying to work out what are my various options in the settings with these different tools. I am definitely spending more time trying to understand this and getting better at understanding my options to be private, and move from some of the public default settings these mediums start you off with.

…….so it is clear Web 2.0 and social networks are eagerly aggregating all our information for us in one place, thus allowing to socialize at many different levels through different mediums through one single interface available on multiple devices.

With this the question in my mind is the dynamic of privacy and public changing to the point we are moving to  a world, culture and expectation that within my social network, I will want to be able to find out where folks are, what they are doing, with whom, and when, to the point this is available to me on my mobile phone, my console at home, my laptop or some other device still to come all at once. Will this become an expectation and the norm?

For someonee who grew up where you could still be stupid and do rideculous things with friends and have no video, pictures, social network feed, update or public medium to share this….the new aggregate public profile on all my web venues is something I will need to get used and restle in finding a balance…..