AT&T seems to have missed the forest for the trees with a new social media site that shares some shockingly similar traits with Google’s social media baby.

A recent News Blaze article, “AT&T Interactive Opens Buzz.com Beta to the Public” laid out the good intentions behind this new service. Combining the logic of countless local recommendation sites and social media, the Buzz.com allows users to share restaurant and other business suggestions to friends. While this gives insight on everything from veterinarians to Vietnamese food, AT&T is cutting things a little close to the competition. First off, the name is shockingly close to Google’s Buzz. Secondly, it too populates a friend list from Facebook.

The SSN Take: The road to irrelevance is paved with good intentions and if you plan to work in the social media realm, differentiate yourself from the competition.

Patrick Roland, April 27, 2010

Note:   Post was not sponsored.