Google said the firehose was their most-requested features from developers. We're also guessing that Google's been eating its own dogfood, since they just launched Buzz results in Google Social Search a couple weeks ago.
In the announcement post, Google highlighted the pretty and mostly useless We Feel Fine-esque Buzz Mood, an app that parses Buzz updates for emotion-related verbs then relays them to the viewer with snappy, slide-y animations.
Partners for the firehose launch include some familiar names in the real-time space; both Collecta and OneRiot have integrated the firehose into their real-time search results, and Boulder-based social data firm Gnip was also among the first companies to use the Buzz firehose.
Buzz might not be the biggest source of currently available social data, but adding its firehose to a wider mix of real-time social update data can help expand and refine and application's results.
Google is also releasing a few new API features today; users' comments, users' links and share counts will now be available via their respective feeds.