I’m quite a big fan of Buzz, despite its many teething issues. Like most of what Google does, the technology is open and builds on or creates standards everybody can use. I found this article while reading about how it all works – if you like knowing how web applications work then you’ll probably find it interesting.

While Facebook, MySpace and Twitter all want to get everybody to communicate within a little closed off, monopolised area of the internet. Buzz is based on technologies you can read about and use for yourself – no Facebook Connect button required.

People say that social network sites are by their nature monopolistic: if people join the one that their friends use then there will always be just one or two major players in each country. Buzz is an attempt to do things differently though. If Buzz takes off (and the initial plans are followed through) then lots of different sites can be views on the same data in the same way that I can talk to anyone with an email address.

On the internet this has always been the right approach to technology. The web took down the closed gardens of Compuserve, MSN and AOL because it was open. Email is open and far more useful than AOL messaging was, or Facebook messaging is now. HTML5 will (hopefully) kill off Flash because you can use it without plugins and you can write it without paying Adobe for expensive software. Gordon – a Javascript Flash runtime is worth a look too, but it’s still interpreting a broken and closed technology.

Obviously Google isn’t being altruistic – if Buzz became popular and people still chose to use GMail as the client then they’d be fine with all the extra advertising – but by allowing anybody to use the technology they’re giving Buzz every chance of becoming the web’s social network.