Disclaimer: I don't have any inside information; this is all just speculation on my part as an IT consultant and technology enthusiast.

With the sudden release of Buzz, Google has fired the first shot in the great social networking war. In the end, it will be Buzz vs. Facebook.

Google knew that it had to grab a huge user base right out of the gate to have a chance. It did this by tying Buzz to Gmail. Buzz's biggest problem is that most people who are interested in social networks already have them established. But Google is hoping to get a lot of potential newcomers interested by sucking in Gmail users who haven't gotten around to using Facebook and Twitter. That's the first move--get something out there to catch anyone still looking for a social networking site.

The next big challenge is that Facebook and Twitter users have no incentive to switch to Buzz. If you already have hundreds or thousands of followers and followees, you don't want to have to establish your network all over again. Buzz is already more sophisticated and useful than Twitter, but it's not better enough to make Twitters want to switch. Google realizes this and already provides integration with Twitter, allowing Buzz users' Twitter posts to automatically flow to Buzz. And there are third party solutions to make things flow the other way as well. But Google will need to solve the problem of established Twitter social networks--it will need to provide a way for users to incorporate their Twitter followers into Buzz without forcing every Twitter user to set up a Google Profile. Once it has done that, it makes Twitter irrelevant. Google will have cut off further Twitter growth before Twitter has a chance to make any money and they'll be a sitting duck for cheap purchase by Google. At that point, Buzz absorbs Twitter and the user bases are combined.

By the time this happens--a fair estimate would be about 18 months from now--developers will have used the Buzz API to build a lot of the cool applications that keep many people coming back daily to Facebook. Buzz will have been enhanced to the point where it's a true competitor to Facebook.  Then it's just a matter of giving Facebook users a good reason to switch. For many, the reason will be the email integration--it makes a lot of sense to have one place to get everything. It's great to have one search box that returns exactly what you're looking for across your circle of interest. Google wants to avoid building Facebook integration into Buzz because, although it makes it easier for users to switch to Buzz, it also gives users a reason not to switch. But because the APIs of both Facebook and Buzz are public, it's going to happen whether they participate or not. So it will end up as an interesting extended battle between Buzz and Facebook.

Eventually, Google will converge many of its products into a single platform, let's call it Google Communicator. Imagine the combination of Gmail, Google Talk, Wave, Buzz, Google Voice, Picasa, Google Docs, and Google Reader into a single portal organized less by the type of communication and more by your social network. Your inbox and filtered folders will be configured so that you quickly see calls, emails, and messages from your closest associates while those in your extended network take a lower priority. The top of your inbox will have an incoming IM from a coworker, a voice message from a family member, or a status update from your closest friend. Your medium priority folders will have pictures from extended family, status updates from distant friends and friends of friends, and low priority emails from work. Your low priority folders will have your RSS subscriptions and emails from mailing lists--the stuff you read when you get around to it.  That optimized way of organizing a user's view of the internet is where Google and Facebook both want to go. Google's in a better position to make it happen, but it'll be interesting to watch how it plays out.

Related: Is the Wave/Buzz duality a sign Google has gotten too big? 

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