Google Buzz — First Reactions 310
Google announced Buzz today, as we anticipated this morning. CNET has a workmanlike description of the social-networking service, which is integrated into gmail. CNET identifies a central obstacle Buzz will have to overcome to gain traction: "The problem, however, will be the increasing backlash Google is seeing from the general public over how much data the company already controls on their online habits." Buzz is being rolled out over the next few days so some people will see a Buzz folder in their gmail, but most won't yet (this Twitter post explains how Safari users can get an early glimpse). A blog posting up at O'Reilly Answers points out some of the distinguishing characteristics of Google Buzz — one interesting one being its ability to post an update either publicly or privately, at the user's option. This design choice places it between the public-by-default Twitter and the private-by-default Facebook. Lauren Weinstein sounds a note of caution about the inherent privacy risks of Google's method of filling out initial friend profiles by automatic friending.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Informative)
"We're still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don't see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon."
Got it this afternoon... (Score:5, Informative)
I actually got Buzzed this afternoon. When I was logging into Gmail the splash screen came up and asked me to try it out. I have been futzing around with it today, but will probably switch it off.
Random thoughts on it;
Google seems desperate to get this out; I thought I had been logged out of Gmail when the Buzz splash screen came up as I tried to get to my Inbox. Going a little hard to the hoop, I think.
Along the same lines, it has a big colorful icon next it under Inbox on the left hand menu. Again, seems desperate.
It autofriends some subset of people you know (I think it's people on your Gchat list), which is kind of weird. I logged in and already had one friend following me. It asks to follow your friends as well.
The site ties into some other sites; Flickr, Picasa, and Twitter, I think (that was in the menu that automatically came up). It also lets you connect to Youtube, Google Reader, and Gchat statuses (it looks like when connected activity on those sites will show up on your "feed.")
The status screen screams Twitter and Facebook. I guess there aren't many ways to do 140 character status updates, but it really resembles those sites.
It took me a few minutes to figure how to switch it off; I thought it would be in settings or in Labs, but there's a small link near the bottom of its window and the inbox (where you can also shut off chat). Again, I am glad they have a shut off but hiding it down there seems a bit desperate.
Otherwise there doesn't seem to be much to it yet. I was hoping for some settings or preferences to futz around with (why do I immediately go into a new program's settings or preferences, and why does it always make me so happy?). I am switching it off I think; while I love Gmail, connected sites makes me wonder about how much information Google already has about me and since my Gmail is my general e-mail, I don't need it mixing with facebook-style status updates or anything, and I am creeped out that it uses my name (from Gmail settings, I assume). I realize those can be changed and if I am careful my e-mail and Buzz will never meet, but I'd really rather just not have them together right now.
i was worried for a second... (Score:4, Informative)
(original here [google.com])
a lot of us aren't too terribly impressed with twitbook and whatever, and wouldn't really want anything like that to be integrated with our email accounts without our consent. it's good to know that google considered that.
Re:Buzz off, I'm not interested in another one! (Score:2, Informative)
I use Facebook occasionally, especially for playing Lexulous (scrabble clone) with my wife lately.
I love Lexulous. However, I don't even have a Facebook account. It's not required.
Re:Losing Appeal (Score:3, Informative)
Um, you know you can use POP or IMAP with gmail extremely easily, right? I don't personally, their web interface is far more convenient (one less program to always be running), but really, just use POP or IMAP and your client of choice if the interface bothers you that much. That way you get all the great benefits of Gmail storage, you get the ability to access your mail from anywhere, and you still get the interface you want.
Mobile version of Buzz (Score:5, Informative)
Reality check: more Farmville users than Twitter (Score:2, Informative)
Seriously, more people play a crappy-assed, viral game on Facebook than use Twitter. Facebook could lose every single Twitter user on the planet not lose a tenth of its userbase.
This is not to say that some new site might not be able to come along and dethrone Facebook from being the top of the heap. It's just that Twitter integration isn't going to do it. Some company needs to come along and supply a better, easier to use platform for serving up crappy-assed, viral games.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Informative)
Beyond lame (Score:3, Informative)
I heard about it earlier today, and clicked it up on my iPhone to check it out. It asked me if it could use my current location, and I said OK, and immediately it brought up a location thousands of miles away from me, in another country. Since this wasn't right, i tapped it, scrolled down to the search function, and typed in my current location. Buzz had the audacity to tell me that the location I typed in didn't exist, because it was not near the location it had auto-detected. Well, no shit it was nowhere near what it detected...that's what I was trying to tell it! And it was trying to tell me that I didn't know what I was talking about. It's not like I am out in the middle of nowhere (my current location is near a medium-sized American city). Fail!
Re:Now's the Time (Score:3, Informative)
I hear this claim made a lot, though I never see any warrants to back it up. Lots of people have expressed how Facebook is "so much harder to use," but never say where.
You've obviously never used Facebook then.
First, they separated the feed into two - the News Feed and the Live Feed. No one could fully understand what the News Feed even was other than a bastardized version of the more complete Live Feed. Then, no matter how many times you selected Live Feed, after a certain period of time, your home page would default back to the News Feed. Then, they changed their privacy settings so that if you once had a locked down account, the default settings would share more info than you were previously.
Now, with the most recent update, the Live Feed has just disappeared, the News Feed isn't complete, the Top Stories feed lists things completely out of order with new posts buried down on the page, the Live Feed has somewhat been broken out under the Friends -> Status Updates/Recently Updated section, but even that section is incomplete as I have friends who have made status updates today that don't display under any category. My lady friend whom I stalk with computer nerd like determination posted a new video of her animals that doesn't show up anywhere unless I click directly on her profile.
That enough examples for you?
Re:Can someone write a ranomization app for that? (Score:5, Informative)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3173 [mozilla.org]
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/TrackMeNot/ [nyu.edu]
I don't actually use it, I just googled it.. oh the irony.
Not using Google for searches isn't enough (Score:1, Informative)
There's more to shaking off Google than not using their searches for Firefox users.
By default FF sends every URL you visit to Google as part of their anti-forgery protection thingie. And by default any bad URL in the FF address bar is turned into a google search.
Type "about:config" in your address bar, type "google" in the filter and remove/replace the 5 or 10 entries that are still there with 127.0.0.1.
Then there's Google Analytics, their ad service, which is used by many sites. Everytime you visit a site with Google-served ads, Google knows, and they link it with the rest of the session information. Use the Ghostery extension to block it.
Finally, make sure Firefox is configured to delete cookies when you close it (except for white-listed sites). Always a good habit.
Re:Public vs private (Score:2, Informative)
The OpenSocial mailing list was notified today about a project that was announced at FOSDEM 10: OneSocialWeb [onesocialweb.org]. It extends XMPP to handle stuff like activity streams and third-party apps. It's set to be released under an Apache license and will provide a completely federated social network. I'm very excited.
Screencast [onesocialweb.org] with working client and server. The project is requesting developer help.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:1, Informative)
LMAO
Re:Public vs private (Score:4, Informative)
We are NOT helpless. The government is I/O bound, just like every organization and company out there.
Wait what?!? Every single thing I've ever read has indicated the government has huge amounts of data and is restricted by its ability to process and intelligently make use of that data, not by getting data from disparate sources.
Now suppose you use Bing for search, your local ISP for email, Facebook for social, Open Office for letters, AIM for IM etc, then what? The government has to open an I/O channel to Microsoft for your search terms, then they have to open another I/O channel to read your mail with your ISP, then contact yet another company for I/O on your social links, etc.
The government is probably already sucking in massive quantities of information from all these major players en masse. The best hope of avoiding coming to their attention is to do business with small players they may not have bothered with and doing business with companies with competent security and strong ethics regarding sharing your data. That is to say, look for companies that actually tell the government "no" and require a warrant at least.
And with so many different companies and locations, each company has different policies about retention, backup, willingness to preserve privacy, etc.
Ummm, if the government is asking all of them for your data anyway, then maybe you should be focusing on the ones with the best data privacy policies.
Compare that with Google, where the special government backdoor allows uniform guarantees of simplicity and ease of access to your data. All the government needs is a single judge to say the word, and Google will comply.
Getting a judge to sign an order puts up a significant block to getting your data. Sure they can do it, but it takes time and leaves tracks. Requiring a judge to do that is actually a much larger stumbling block to invading your privacy than the majority of your listed companies require.
Re:Not a threat for now... (Score:2, Informative)
Most people, myself included, use Google Mail (or at least their web interface) to check and compose e-mail. That's it. With Buzz thrown in the mix, now people can check their email as well as follow the people they're emailing through pictures, videos, status updates, etc. All of these things are way outside the realm of emailing, which is, like regular mail, to simply correspond..
I don't mean to be insulting by this at all but it sounds like you're old and out of touch with how most people communicate in 2010. The email only crowd is generally 30 plus. The "under 30" idea of corresponding is exactly "pictures, videos, status updates, etc." That makes Buzz a natural fit with gmail. It's kind of a one stop shop for all you're communication needs. Buzz probably won't catch on but I hardly think it's out of place.