What’s All the Buzz About? Why, Google Buzz!

I would like to thank whoever decided to launch Buzz in the middle of the snowpocalypse of 2010. Great decision or greatest decison ever? You be the judge!

On to serious things: Google introduced Buzz, its social integration and messaging tool as an alternative to popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed. Buzz offers a bold and interesting approach to social networking:

It features:

• Automatic friends lists
• Public and private sharing options
• "Rich fast sharing" that integrates sources like Picasa, Twitter, Google Reader into a single feed
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates, like Facebook might, Buzz features emails that update in real time with all Buzz thread content
• "Recommended Buzz" puts friend-of-friend "smart" content into your stream, even if you're not acquainted

Buzz is similar to the Facebook Newsfeed in that it lets you share photos, video, links to websites, and other content from all over the web with your closest contacts -- or with the public at large. The obvious difference is that it is housed in Gmail and integrates your most frequent Gmail contacts automatically.

Google is involved in nearly every facet of our online lives but so far, their social media component has been weak. Yes, they have Orkut and OpenSocial, but very few people actually use these tools in the United States - and certainly not in the meaningful social ways that Facebook and Twitter are used.

My favorite Google product is Google Reader, where I have built a tight-knit community. I was reluctant to see Reader replaced by something new and shiny (RIP Google Wave?) but to my great surprise, my friends and contacts were responsive. 141 comments? Not bad for my first Buzz.

Personally, I think Google Reader's and now Buzz's main appeal is the fact they stand out from the crowd by allowing social curation. There is a lot going on on the social web; some would even say too much. Google allows you to import items from the various services you use like Twitter and Flickr, but only shows you the best and most relevant ones.

A Whole New Crop Of Privacy Issues

My initial excitement soon gave way to real privacy concerns. Silicon Alley Insider raised an early red flag noting that the service exposes your e-mail contacts by default. That's a big problem if you have e-mail contacts you'd rather not make public. When you first post to Google Buzz, there is a dialogue box that reads "Before participating in Buzz, you need a public profile with your name and photo." It also says in tiny gray font against a white background, "Your profile includes your name, photo, people you follow, and people who follow you." What it doesn't explain is that these publicly viewable follower lists include those you most frequently email/chat with. Unfortunately the default setting is to make the information public, and only users who click on an "edit" tab can see the choice to opt out.

This means, before you even change any of your settings, someone could go into your profile and see the people you email and chat with most. However, it seems Buzz only shares information about other people who are using Buzz and have set up public profiles in Google. Currently, most Gmail users are not publicly listed by the service. Users can also "unfollow" people who they don't want to be linked to.

Your Checklist
If you’re confused by Google Buzz, look no further! Here is your checklist of things to do to ensure the best possible Buzz experience, and how to do all of them:

·         Stop Google Buzz from sharing your contacts. Enough said. 

·         Google Reader Shared Items Page 

o    By default, Google pulls content from your Google Reader Shared Items page to Buzz. You can turn this off with an edit but it makes sense since you wouldn't be sharing blog posts you found interesting unless you wanted others to read them. Reader share duplicates wouldn't be such a nuisance if i could un-follow someone in Buzz and still keep them in Reader. That is unfortunately not possible right now and I hope it gets fixed soon 

·         Hide/Remove Buzz contacts from your Inbox

o    I love that Buzz directly brings me the conversation via my Gmail experience but I hate that it duplicates these both in your Inbox and Buzz tab. The redundancy is unnecessary and annoying if you're trying to keep an organized inbox. To get rid of Buzz updates in your email inbox, click on the link above for step-by-step instructions! 

·         Google needs a BLOCK button

o    I found very frustrating that people I do not communicate with, and who I have blocked on gchat are some of my automatic followers. The upper hand goes to Twitter and especially Facebook on this one. This LifeHacker commenter sums up your blocking options.

 
While we at NMS are excited about the launch of Google Buzz and love playing with fun new online tools, we hope Google listens to the feedback from its most devoted consumers. Judging by the Twitter activity, there's a lot of early love for Google Buzz, but there's also a lot of room for growth, improvement, and better features. Will Google listen and quickly incorporate new features to help ease privacy concerns and make Buzz more useful to its loyal Gmail fan base?

Who knows- but if you're listening, Google, feel free to give me a call! Or just Buzz me. I’ll be there.

- Aminatou Sow