AT&T has released a beta service known as Buzz.com.  This brand new service of AT&T is awfully confusing with Google’s Buzz.  The confusing part is not mainly about the service, but it’s more of a brand name confusion.  Aren’t these two services have exactly the same name?  AT&T’s Buzz is not the same as Google’s Buzz.  AT&T’s Buzz is more like a web service where you can bookmark certain local businesses such as a local restaurant as your favorite, and the list goes on.  Searching AT&T’s Buzz which reveals others recommended local favorite spots such as favorite Pizza parlor from a known friend, and the list goes on.  Conversation can be started on AT&T’s Buzz as it seems social network elements are available.  Maybe asking a friend who has a Buzz’s recommendation for more similar favorite services?

The first time I access AT&T’s Buzz, it seems the service locates my location by my IP address.  AT&T’s Buzz shows the search box that has my real location as a starting local area to search for.  I’m able to change the location that I want to search by just typing in another location.  Above the location text box, you can enter the search terms such as Pizza Hut, and AT&T’s Buzz will pull up the available Pizza Hut stores in the location that you have specified.  If you find the Pizza Hut store that you have dealt with in the pasts, you can either heart it to make it as your favorite local Pizza store, or you can click on a search result (usually the name of a business) and enter your opinion/review about the business.  The review has to be around 160 character less.  This reminds me of Twitter, and AT&T’s Buzz does look very similar to Twitter as its user interface is somewhat stylishly Twitterish.

Other features that you can play with on AT&T’s Buzz are inviting friends, searching friends on Buzz, asking questions that you think your friends can answer, linking Facebook with Buzz so that you can share your Buzz’s activities with your Facebook’s wall.  Besides asking questions and viewing your own questions, you can also view your friends’ questions.  Viewing your own answers and your friends’ answers are also possible.  Whatever local spots that you have marked as your favorites could be viewed by go to [Favorites >> My Favorites], and you can view your friends’ favorites, too.

In my opinion, AT&T’s Buzz is not competing against other online review services such as Angieslist.com — AT&T’s Buzz behaves very differently from those.  Instead of allowing users to enter a long review, AT&T’s Buzz goes with the Twitter route by allowing users to enter a Twitter-like-message as a short but concise review message.  Services such as Angieslist make you pay for being a part of their services, but AT&T’s Buzz is FREE.  AT&T’s Buzz is also not in business to outdo Twitter as it’s concentrating on location search and local reviews.  AT&T’s Buzz is somewhat unique as it’s different from other online review services.  Other online review services are concentrating on providing long reviews for businesses, but this is not the case with AT&T’s Buzz.

In short, I think AT&T’s Buzz is a very interesting web service as it is fun to use, useful as it allows you to search for local locations, and it has social network’s elements.  I definitely recommend you to try the service out.  AT&T’s Buzz is in beta stage, and so many things that I describe here may completely change as the service moves ahead.  See you on AT&T’s Buzz!  Other related AT&T’s Buzz articles found on the web:  AT&T Uses Yellow Pages Data To Take On Yelp With Buzz.com, AT&T’s Yelp-Like Social Local Listings Platform Buzz.com Launches To The Public.