Google Launches Buzz

[engine]

Google Launches Buzz [latimesblogs.latimes.com]

The Internet giant held a press conference at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters Tuesday to show off "Buzz," which incorporates social media tools such as photo and video sharing and status updates in Gmail. Google Buzz will also be accessible on mobile phones. And Google will launch Buzz for businesses.

Google vice president of product management Bradley Horowitz, vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra, and product manager Todd Jackson were on hand to show it off. The tagline for Google Buzz is "a Google approach to sharing."

The new service has five features, Jackson said. You will automatically follow the people you e-mail and chat with on a regular basis. You will be able to share content from around the Web, including YouTube videos, Flickr photos, site links and others. You will be able to share your thoughts in a public way and in a private way. You will get social updates in your inbox. And Google will help you find only the stuff that matters by recommending popular content. The mobile version of Buzz can figure out where you are and show you nearby buzz posts.

Earlier story
[webmasterworld.com...]

[Trav]

Not really seeing the need for Buzz either, and wondering if it will be a buzzkill for that other hot-to-forgotten Goog offering, Wave. It would be so much more useful to me if they would improve the help features for most of their products.

[J_RaD]

i logged into my spam gmail account and was greeted with a huge bright message asking me to WAOH JOIN BUZZZZZZZZZZZZz

i clicked the little tiny link that says "nah i just want my e-mail"

[zett]

And ooops, a first privacy flaw [businessinsider.com] has been discovered.

[tangor]

Linking email to social media is a big mistake. Google, meanwhile, operates under the "folks are too lazy and stupid" to know the errors of giving up that much info. Somewhere along the way there will be regulation by either companies (employers) or countries... but by that time google has eroded privacy that much further and, as we all know, putting the genie back in the bottle is pretty difficult.

[idolw]

All of us look at this from webmaster/business point of view.
There are many people who use internet only for fun and they'll be happy to have fun features in their gmail. Instead of logging to facebook, twitter, hi5, etc. they'll just log into gmail and see both: emails from their friends and what friends are up to right now.
Google must have been asking twitter to put adsense on all tweets but twitter was "looking for a business model". Now they built better twitter alone and will not need to share the revenue.

[genux]

From my point of view, it is nice to have a buzz feature attached to my email, but probably would prefer to have my email attached with facebook updates on it, because as others have said, I have already built up a list of "friends" and to do that again would be annoying, also some of them on facebook I do not have the email address off. I suppose are they really friends.

But I do like the way that buzz does not automatically assume everyone is a friend, but allows you to "invite" them as such.

[bwnbwn]

Intresting Iran blocks Gmail about the same time this launches. I guess the country wants to read all emails in a persons account most likely the Goverment will CC themselves an email from every person sending an email.

I sometimes wonder on Gmails security as I continue to get emails from another persons account. At first I thought they were sending the emails to my email name by mistake, but after looking into it nope the emails are addressed correctly but being delivered to me.

For this reason I don't send or store emails that could contain any important personal information.

[frontpage]

Buzz = ZZzzzzzz

[frontpage]

For those who don't want Buzz, here is how to disable it:

If you are a user who has no use for Google Buzz, login to your Gmail account and scroll down to the bottom of the page. In the footer links you will see a link which says "turn off buzz".

Just click on that link and Google Buzz will disappear from your Gmail account forever. If you want to turn on Google Buzz again, scroll down to the bottom and click on the "turn on buzz" link.

[frontpage]

Oh Noes.... By 'turning off Buzz' in your Gmail account does not disable it completely according to many reports.

I smell a PR debacle in the making with Google automatically 'opting in' every Gmail user.

Google Buzz can put the contacts you automatically follow — a.k.a. those you most frequently email or chat — on a public profile page.

[google.com...]

[wheel]

I've seen some less than complimentary comments on this in non-website related forums.

[Harry]

@idolw The non tech media has already begun to slam Buzz for its privacy invasion. Privacy is not something that only geeks care about. Sometimes, people who use tech widgets the least are the most flamboyant privacy advocates...

Here's the top three list of major Google Buzz privacy fails.

1. Google Buzz automatically imports contacts and shows them as friends.
2. Google Buzz grabs photos without a user uploading them
3. Google Buzz can pinpoint and broadcast your exact location.

(source is channelweb)

[TheMadScientist]

I think there is a line between social media and general internet usage that Google are failing to see. If I wanted to use a social site I would. When I am using email I expect it to be just that, email.

Well said Mack... I think I'm actually about to drop GMail now. I don't like being opted in, and have been using GMail because I can consolidate my e-mail accounts there and have e-mail open in a tab rather than a separate program, so it's mainly been a convenience thing, but really just wanted GMail without all the other GS*** along with it, so if they won't leave me alone and just let me get e-mail in my e-mail account I think I'll just opt out of the whole shebang...

What's really funny is if they had just put a big button on the top of the screen and let me know about it I probably would have clicked and read and whether I used it or not I wouldn't be at all bothered by it, but when I clicked the refresh button today on the page and got the ad I clicked the 'No thanks, just take me to GMail link' and what did I see? Buzz In My GMail Account With Someone Already 'Following' Me.

Uh, hello people at Google, you gave me a link to opt out and I used it... Not because I wanted to have it attached to my account or to opt out again so you know I really meant it. I said 'NO Thanks!' How tough is it to understand your own 'No, Thanks' link?

[artefaqs]

A report by RJ Metrics found that only 17% of Twitter users updated their accounts in December — an all-time low.

I'll take 17% of 32 million unique visitors (according to WSJ) if you don't want them.

[bwnbwn]

It has hit front page of Foxnews now so this is becoming a Google PR Disaster.
I am sure Microsoft won't let this die and there will be futher bad PR about this serious Privacy Flaw.

[engine]

This was a major faux pas, imho.

Google Buzz Privacy Settings Updated [webmasterworld.com]

[Eurydice]

Buzz gave me a list of people to follow. Along with several who I don't know, it includes Britney Spears.

Yes, that Britney.

Is Google paying celebrities to be in Buzz?

[ken_b]

I noticed a small link in the footer of my Gmail page that said "Turn off Buzz", so I did.

[mack]

>> I noticed a small link in the footer of my Gmail page that said "Turn off Buzz", so I did.

I did the same. I just don't understand the Google logic. Here's an example...

You tell a friend
"I like Facebook"
friend: "Whats Facebook?"
you: "Its a social site go to facebook.com and sign up"

Or for Buzz...

"I like Buzz"
friend: "Whats buzz?"
you: "Well it's a social tool from Google. First you need to create a Google account, then use their Googlemail service then you will see a little link to the right. That's Buzz"

If they wanted this to be a real success, surely it would have made more sense to have it as a stand alone service. Putting social tools right next to the “holy grail” of privacy (your email) is just plain crazy!

Mack.

[ronin]

Plus Buzz looks horribly like an also-ran.

Come on Google, please don't take leaves out of Microsoft's book.

The "unoriginal and slightly inferior but better distributed product" business model is not the one you should be aiming for.

You can be so much more original and so much better.

Put your effort into creating viral buzz around Wave instead... now that's an application to be proud of.

[Eurydice]

I suddenly see a use for Buzz. It's actually really good.

- Click on the person's name. It offers their profile. Click on that. You can see who they are (for example, the person is an engineer at Google).

- You can also read their Buzz postings. You can see what they are talking about at Google.

- And you can see who they are following. The Google staffers are generally following other Google staffers, so you can start following them.

This gives everyone quick and easy access into Google. You can finally get answers and give feedback to Google.

I wonder if Google is now going to shut this down?

[zett]

Serious question to those who have looked at Google Buzz.

I have a Google Account that I used to use for Adsense (often), Blogger (some time ago), and Gmail (long time ago). Do I now have to actively shut down this Buzz thing somewhere in the profile in order to prevent "sensitive" information to go out (e.g. birthday)?

[Eurydice]

Zett: I also have a number of gmail accts that I use for various clients. These are used to create Google IDs for Adwords and are never used for anything else.

I opened one. When Gmail opens, it asks if I want to use Buzz. I clicked "no". But when I go into the gmail acct, Buzz is in the list. So it appears there, but it's empty.

I then HAD to go to the bottom of the screen and click "turn off Buzz" to remove it entirely.

Amazing. You tell Google you don't want it, but they add it anyway.