It should be the first commandment of new gadget launches — if you’ve invested vast sums in developing the next “iPhone killer” you’re going to need serious positive buzz at launch to convince a skeptical public. Just ask Nokia. And yet Google’s big foray into direct sales with its Nexus One smartphone is getting bogged down in complaints over unresponsive customer service, spotty coverage from carrier T-Mobile and contract termination fees that could add up to — gulp! — $550.

As the Tweeter @chrislamping remarked, “Looks like google’s nexus one isn’t all its it’s cracked up to be. Buggy 3g, $550 worth of ETF, awful support. Yea I think i’ll wait.” The trade press is just as dubious. PC Week succinctly concludes, “Support Problems Good Reason to Avoid Nexus One.” Mashable.com tries to give Google the benefit of the doubt in its back-of-the-envelope tally of what the phone actually costs, only to conclude, “Google may have offered us the most advanced Android handset on the market, but they haven’t worked out all the details just yet.”

The Nexus One is the first major gadget launch of the New Year, a launch that was supposed to bring relief to millions of frustrated mobile phone customer by offering them a novel option — you choose the phone first, then the carrier. And you can do it all online, through Google. And yet after just a week on the market Google is getting well and truly panned by gadget reviewers.

But how does the general public feel? We thought we’d take a closer look at the overall buzz (illustrated here; we plugged a few terms into Twitter Spectrum) by drilling down to see what the Twitter community loves, hates and questions about Nexus One. (Twitter Spectrum, for those who are unfamiliar, is a nifty side-by-side comparison app that shows the top keywords for all recent Twitter chatter about any two search terms). Twitter is as good a barometer as any for getting a snapshot of current public sentiment, particularly sexy tech launches. And the good news for Google is Nexus One has been a trending Twitter topic all week, even generating more chatter than iPhone.

How the Twitterverse feels about the Nexus One launch.

As our screen grab of Twitter chatter shows, the biggest discussion topics around Nexus One so far are about the geeky guts of the phone. Hardly a surprise there. Yes, it runs on the “Android” operating system and it comes to us from “Google.” Thank you for those details, Twitter users. These references are beneficial only to Google fans who may not realize they are now in the hardware business too. The positive attributes of Nexus One, meanwhile — here represented by terms such as “best” and “great” — are discussed less frequently. The term “best” refers to the fact reviewers find it to be merely the best Android device so far, not the best device.period of its kind on the market. And the “great” tag? That’s a reference to a much-Tweeted line, courtesy of Mashable: “Nexus One is a great phone, and one of the best Android-based handsets on the market.” More prominent, however, are those vexing discussion threads on Twitter about costs — illustrated here with the terms: “adding” and “real” and “costs.” (As in, adding up the real costs of the Nexus One and you get…)

There’s a similarly skeptical buzz playing out on Facebook at the moment. The biggest Facebook fan forum is an unofficial site called “Google Nexus One.” The wall here is filled with individuals’ professions of love and longing (mainly in the U.S. from Verizon customers who await release in the spring), plus the same old complaints about spotty 3G coverage and confusion about available software and apps. In short, it’s a picture of a launch plagued by questions. Google has no official Nexus One Facebook page with which to respond, but it does mark the Jan. 5th Nexus One launch with a post on its Google Facebook fan page. Here too commenters pepper Google with questions about availability in places like Mexico, the European Union and India.

And how is Google responding to all these questions prominently posted on the most trafficked discussion social media forums? It’s not. Its Nexus One Twitter feed addresses people who’ve already purchased the phone. But it’s as if Google is having a conversation with itself. The Tweets simply ignore the huge number of consumers who wonder: if I buy this phone will it work in my coverage area, and how much will it cost me if I want to switch carriers, presumably to one that can connect my calls? Not even a handy Google map of the 3G coverage area.

The Nexus One was conceived as the antithesis to the iPhone — as the device that would restore customer choice to one of the most restrictive of consumer marketplaces. But as the questions pile up unanswered the public is left to wonder what’s so revolutionary here about Nexus One, anyhow? In the words of Twitter user, @chrislamping, “Yea I think i’ll wait.”