Google has finally reacted to the FB acquisition of Friendfeed, by launching Google Buzz, it’s version of Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed all in one. Just like with the launch of the iPad, the world went crazy, for a little while, I did too.

People like Jason Calacanis are way too excited and if you follow me on twitter, you should already know that I do not agree with his view.

Not everyone is on Gmail, even if they are, not everyone uses all its features. Case in point, my parents. Between them, they have 3 email accounts on Gmail. They religious check their email and although they are signed into Gtalk, they still use Skype for video conferencing with me. Gtalk offers the same exact features and I’m signed into Gtalk always, yet they do not associate Gmail and talking, to them it’s where they check their email.

“Who the hell are these people?” was the thought when I saw random people following me. Google is smart, most of the time. But the choice to automagically add followers is pretty crappy and even creepy. “Friends”, family and other people now are automatically following me. With FB, I pick and choose who I want to add and then give them appropriate rights to view my stuff. With twitter, since anyone can follow me, I am careful about what I’m saying. But with Buzz, they added people automatically and I have to do the legwork to remove people / block them. Besides the fact that I’m going to look like a rude a-hole from removing them, they automatically show up on my google reader. So my options are to stop doing things they way I used to, filter people and then continue. Or make everything private until I can find the time to fix what google broke.

I am annoyed by the Farmville requests on FB, although I do not play the game, but FB still gives me the option of reading up on what my friends have been upto and join groups that interest me. Some of these people are people, I’d never email, have never emailed and how the heck am I supposed to follow these people on Buzz.

By integrating Buzz with Gmail, Google has managed to annoy the heck out of me. I have 800 odd “unread” emails and to add to that, I’m going to have a bunch of Buzzes to read. It’d be different if it was in a different page, but nope, it’s right there. Updates show up straight in your inbox to boot. This is going to get more annoying as I start following more people. The profile pages are clumsy and I cannot get to the profile pages of certain people who are following me. Add to that the UI inspired by Windows 3.1. Granted its version 1.0 and they are going to update things soon, that’s how they do it, but until then, its just clumsy. And whoever thought that double populating the Google reader and Buzz would be a good idea? Seriously, I have to click “mark as read” twice?

With twitter you get to catch up on what the world has to say (depending on who you follow of course). With FB it’s catching up on your not so close friends are up to . With Buzz, its those top 20-30-40 people you email all the time, people you probably know and hang out with. By now, you are probably already “friends” with them on FB and are following them on twitter.

I have always felt that Google was overdoing things. Search, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Voice, Andriod, Nexus one, Orkut, Blogger, Picasa, Google News, Finance, Google Docs, You Tube, that secret project with NASA and now Buzz. I for one would be very disappointed if Google becomes another Yahoo.

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With Schumi going to race for Mercedes GP, he essentially stole the headlines. At least in the rest of the world.

While I’m excited that he is back, I’m torn between picking him, giving up my allegiance for Ferrari and Massa. It’s as difficult as picking a Belgian beer at Monks Kettle.

To make matters more shitty, Narain is now talking about Nascar. No seriously.

I do understand that there are lot of idiots fans who pay good money to watch people drive in circles. Add the possibility of tapping the Indian market for fans, advertising opportunity and having the first Indian in Nascar, it all makes sense. Narain could be making good money, but by driving in the most barbaric racing series, he would be pushing fans like me away.

Arghhh! This is supposed to be fun.

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A couple of days ago, I wrote about how F1 might turn into the new A1GP, if Button decides to go the McLaren route. And it looks like that’s happening while I type.

Earlier today, James Allen had this to say on twitter

See update on Button story, reports he’s on verge of signing £6m a year deal with McLaren

Later this event PST, like clockwork, The Guardian ran the story.

Add that piece of the news with Brawn GP, which will now be Mercedes GP, are looking to sign Nick Heidfeld. Mercedes GP have already signed Rosberg, who races under the German flag.

This leaves us with two teams, both of which have drivers from their country. Lotus is still in search of that elusive Malaysian driver and so is Force India. If both those teams go the national route, almost half the grid will look very different.

As I see the situation right now, this cannot be very good for the sport. But stranger things have happened. What are your thoughts?

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Yesterday the news outlets reported that the 2009 Champion Jenson Button was on a tour of the McLaren HQ.

While it sounds like a dream team at McLaren and without any doubt would make for an exciting season next year, I have doubts about this in the long run.

The reason is simple, I for one do not want F1 to turn into a World Cup.

While it can be argued that Super Aguri and Mallya were the first ones to “introduce” the concept, having a Japanese / Indian driver for the team, Their thoughts made sense then. Both Japan and India have a very large F1 following and having a national driver on board would open doors to the sport. However, things have changed.

The new Lotus team flirted with the idea of having a Malaysian driver for their team and now McLaren could end up with two British drivers. If the model proves successful in the short term, I see other back marker teams jumping on board with this idea, specially given the volatility of the sport and the financial industry in general. Anything to make a few more cents.

In the long run, we might end up with a World cup and each driver getting a medal. While they are at it, might as well make the sport a part of the Olympics.

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Alonso has been demoted 5 positions after pulling this.

And then dodges Ron Dennis the McLaren boss.

Here is a view from a helicopter that gives credibility to the rumors that Alonso’s trainer was counting time off and gave him the sign to drive off ensuring Hamilton would not be able to take another shot at the Pole position.

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