I’m undertaking an interesting endeavor this month: switching my default search engines from Google to Bing, and blogging about my experience at Month of Bing. Head on over and give it a spin, will ya?

GigaOM acquired a recruiting letter from Google:

This is a new and very strategic position, as Google knows it is late on this front and is appropriately humble about it. In Google’s view, conceptually, there are two ways to tackle social, each impacting who may be successful in this senior post: 1) building an innovating offering specifically in this area; or 2) developing the capability and integrating social into Google’s existing portfolio.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ve probably seen my initial thoughts and problems with Google Buzz (aside from the whole privacy sinkholes – those were pretty obvious from the get-go). Would the director of social media have the authority to change anything about the products, or would s(he) only have the ability to promote and guide product launches? Clearly, there are a lot of unanswered questions one would have to consider before applying/taking the position.

So, your homework assignment for today: Would you tackle the position at Google? Why or why not? What advice would you give to Google’s new head of social media?

That said, here are the top 3 things I’d change about Google Buzz:

1. New Buzz items float to the top. Matt Cutts, Google’s webspam ninja and all-around Google evangelist, had a rather benign Hello World Buzz he posted on February 11. People are still responding to it as we speak. It’s been at the top – or near the top – since he clicked the post button.
2. Slightly better privacy options. I applaud Google for responding so quickly to security concerns with Buzz; however, I still think they need to do more. I’m being followed by an army of Asian spammers. I block ‘em, natch. But still. Please, Google, make it a little more difficult for people to follow me that aren’t one of my regular Gmail contacts.
3. iPhone/Android/Blackberry App. This is a no-brainer. You want people to check in to locations, a la Foursquare and Yelp? Well, make it easy for them, because pulling up the HTML 5-based Buzz site is a major Buzzkill.

Honorable mention: allowing users to attach more than one image or link to a reply. Hot damn, that’s annoying.

What would you change about Buzz if you were king for a day?

And waited.

But then I finally got in and was able to play around a bit. What I found was a strange hybrid between Gmail, Google Wave, Twitter and Friend Feed. What I immediately thought was “Oh. Here comes all those Google Buzz is an <insert social media company> killer! articles that I’m going to hate reading for the next six weeks.”

The thing is, I don’t think Buzz is a social media killer. I think it’s the bridge between Gmail and Wave. And, like Wave, I see a lot of the same usage patterns forming:

1. Google announces and/or details leak about Buzz.
2. Social Media sites go berserk trying to out-hype each other. The hyperbole is staggering.
3. Features and usage is speculated by “thought leaders” and “experts,” furthering the hype cycle.
4. Google opens the floodgates to users, slaps a “beta” tag on the product, then waits 4 years to remove it.
5. Everyone endures some sandbox time with Buzz. Subsequently, everyone is blasted with “Hello World!” messages.

What now?

Where it goes from here is up to Google. Buzz is tightly integrated with Gmail’s web interface, so I doubt it’ll burn out like Wave; at the same time, I’m not positive Google can sustain any sort of hype beyond the initial Hello World phase. Looking at what happened to Wave, I honestly can see the slow fizzle in a few months.

What I think it all boils down to is answering the question do we really need another location-based status update service? If you answered yes, you’ve got Google’s version of Twitter/FriendFeed/Foursquare.

If you answered no, you’ll probably end up like a lot of Wave users: inactive.

At any rate, when Google finally mashes up Buzz and Wave and moves the final product out of beta, they’re betting that they’ll be the future of the web. Or, at the very least, validate some of those articles touting that message now.

What are your thoughts on Google Buzz? Do you see yourself using it a lot? A little?

Sure, a minute of Super Bowl air time is the equivalent of a rounding error for Google, but plunkin’ down the cheddar to put some distance between themselves and Bing may not be a bad play. I’ll have to dig into some data and figure out how much GOOG’s search market is being eroded by Bing, but I’d venture to guess pulling the trigger on a Super Bowl advertisement is a good sign that Bing is gaining ground a little too fast for Big G.

Also worth noting: this video has been available for free on YouTube since November 19, 2009. It currently has 1,868,941 views. According to Nielsen ratings, 106.5 million people watched Super Bowl 44, making it the most-watched television event in history.

Money well spent.