I’m sure we’ve all heard about the debut of Google Buzz, Google’s new, and already controversial, social networking solution. For those of us wondering about what this Buzz thing is, and why your Gmail account is trying to convince you to sign up, CrunchBase has an excellent article about the basics of what Buzz is along with some features and screen shots.

It appears Google has also put together a promotional video explaining what Buzz is, and how they intend you to use it as a social media feature in tandem with your Gmail account:

Sounds interesting right? Unfortunately, as with all social media there are some downsides concerning privacy vs functionality. In fact, there has been such an outcry over the AutoFollow feature, a tool that looks at your Gmail contacts and then automatically links them to your Buzz account, that Google has had to do some serious backpedaling. (See the TechCrunch Article covering this.)

Is Google Buzz the new Facebook/Twitter/MySpace? It’s really too early to tell how effective Buzz is going to be in the long run. While it definitely has some fascinating features and the tools to be a new step up in the online social media world, it had some obstacles to overcome. My advice? As with any site or program that has the ability to make private information public, proceed with caution.