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You are here: Home / Google buzz

Google buzz

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Do any of you understand google buzz? I suddenly have this new Buzz button under my inbox and it has 54 messages or buzzes or whatever in it. About 70% of them are things (tweets and google status messages, I guess?) that Ana Marie Cox wrote. I broke down and read some of them and ended up following a link to a Jezebel article about Jon Mayer (which was pretty funny, in fairness).

So what is google buzz, anyway?

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67Comments

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    So what is google buzz, anyway?

    Annoying since it signs up up to follow every one of your contacts and signs them up to follow you. I’mthis close -> <- to just junking my gmail account.

  5. 5.

    J.W. Hamner

    I turned it off immediately when it first popped up… but I turned it back on and am giving it a chance. I don’t do hardly anything on Facebook and don’t do Twitter, so I doubt it will appeal to me… but whatever. I find the mobile version for it to be both intriguing and scary… the idea of GPSed tweets is kind of neat, but that seems like a privacy line I don’t want to cross.

    They seemed to have some privacy/sharing problems initially (everybody could see all your friends), but it seems the current rules are sensible if I’m understanding them correctly.

  13. 13.

    scav

    OK, O’Reilly, step up and finish the book on Google Annoyances, there’s a gaping hole in your lineup.

  14. 14.

    MikeJ

    Meh. If it had existed when I started my gmail account I might have singed up anyway and just turned it off. Turning stuff on without asking is a different matter, and there’s too many other places to get webmail. Just don’t need the headache.

    apt-get squirrelmail

  15. 15.

    Mike Kay

    I wonder how many women Clinton has hit on since his procedure?

    His mistress(es) must of been in tears when the news emerged.

  16. 16.

    mistermix

    You can “connect” all the sites that you work on, and they’ll all show up in your buzz stream. It’s yet another Facebook wall.

    Though, scarily enough, it knew about my blog, even though my blog isn’t hosted on Google (blogger).

    So, for example, DougJ, if you “connected” balloon juice in buzz, all of us who have you on our buzz list would see that you posted to b-j. Of course, we could also check the web page, but that’s so 2009.

  17. 17.

    mantis

    It’s basically the same thing as Pownce was, only Googlefied. Never heard of Pownce? Yeah, it didn’t work out.

    Anyway, it’s similar to Twitter in which you can post text (without the 140 character limit), but you can also post embedded links, video, and pictures, and you can have whatever crap you put up on Twitter, Flickr and all the Google properties (Picasa, YouTube, etc.) automatically post there. Then your “followers” can comment on your posts, and you on theirs.

    I’m actually pleased with it, but I’m just using it to post among a small group of friends on one of my Google accounts, making it little more than an extension of my gmail account. It’s kind of like having a small private group blog. Or Google Wave light.

    It gets creepy if you let it use the GPS on your mobile. Then you can “find” other people near you who also have it so equipped, and they can “find” you. No thanks.

    Anyway, with almost everything Google, it does have an off switch, and you can customize it to your liking, to a degree.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Mary

    I tried following one guy, and was instantly overwhelmed with STUFF. (Some people should just not share their RSS feeds, right?)

    Turned it off. Don’t need it.

  22. 22.

    Max

    I am still learning Facebook. No way I’m starting something else.

    P.S. Enjoying watch the PUMA’s turn the Clinton in the hospital thing into yet another way to slam Obama. These people are fucking nuts and truly have this fantasy of the Clintons riding into the White House and tossing Barack and Michelle out and going on to save the country. Maybe if Obama banged a few interns in the Oval, these crazies would like him.

  24. 24.

    Peter J

    As I understand it from the reporting, the main function of Buzz is so that wives can find out that their husband is cheating on them (and vice versa), and also letting your boss know if you’re looking to jump ship and start working for the competition.

  25. 25.

    Tax Analyst

    Hmmm…I have g-mail and had not noticed “Buzz” before…and having read what it is about over here I think I’ll continue to not notice it, thankyouverymuch.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    Speaking of John Mayer, when I was standing in line at Duane Reade tonight (yes, Duane Reade – greetings from NYC, y’all) I inadvertently caught a glimpse of one of the supermarket tabloids, which had on it’s cover something about Taylor Swift, John Mayer, and a “risky hookup.”

    I sure hope that was about her risking the goodwill of her fans by recording something bluesy. Anything else would make me gag. Thirty-year-old men shouldn’t be doing teenagers.

  28. 28.

    Mike Kay

    @Max:

    P.S. Enjoying watch the PUMA’s turn the Clinton in the hospital thing into yet another way to slam Obama.

    which PUMA sites?

  29. 29.

    Jane2

    It’s yet another app for those who already talk to each other on the other 983473 can use. For the rest of us, ignore. My social app of choice is Facebook, period.

  30. 30.

    PurpleGirl

    OT but I think it’s funny. I was surfing over at Tennessee Guerilla Women and they have a post up about Harold Ford and whether or not he’s a NYS resident and if he’s filed a NYS tax return yet. They direct you over to Gawker for more details on the matter. Gawker has a bunch of posts about him. I think the dear boy is suffering from foot-in-butt syndrome and he keeps pushing it in deeper.

  31. 31.

    Scott H

    well, umm. buzz seems very much like a ‘twitter’ for gmail. since i’ve never twittered, it doesn’t seem all that useful. as others have mentioned, you can turn it off at with a link at the bottom of your gmail screen.

    but as i read on slate (yes, i read slate) there’s a perception that google bets on many different new frontiers that seem to overlap (buzz & wave, for example) just to take advantage of creativity and win regardless.

    whatevah. do no evil, if you can keep it up.

  32. 32.

    snarkyspice

    It’s a little bit more than just another app for talking to other people. If you read their privacy policy, there’s a chance for people to get into real trouble with this and not even know it.

    I follow a lot of liberal bloggers on Twitter. That’s between me and them. But if I follow the same people on Buzz and don’t cover my tracks, the whole world could know.

    That’s because I have a Google profile and the Buzz privacy policy states that anyone I follow will show up on my Google profile unless I go in and stop that from happening.

    Lots of people set up a Google profile to establish online visibility and help their careers. Half of them wouldn’t even realize that their political affiliation is now available for everyone to see. Maybe that’s Ok with them, but that kind of openness is a personal decision.

    I don’t know – maybe it’s inevitable that eventually we will have no privacy, but I really don’t like having it forced on me by sleight of hand.

  33. 33.

    john b

    it’s the part of google reader where you can share with friends, but slightly more automatic. It’s really nothing new for people who already use google reader to share things with friends.

  35. 35.

    Jay S

    @John Cole: @J.W. Hamner:

    Just go to the bottom of the page and turn it off.

    Depending on what you are trying to stop, that may not be enough. From what I’ve read it turns off the crap coming into your gmail page. Your profile remains public, with anything you have posted to the public. It appears that you need to visit your google profile page and set some of you privacy settings if you want to clean stuff up.

    Here are some details on other stuff you may want to do. There are a bunch of posts in several places about the difficulty of cleaning up after tuning out.

  37. 37.

    Pennypacker

    When I declined Buzz the offer never came up again. Not really sure what I did right there…But in any case I don’t want another Facebook. I’ve already invested enough time building friends on FB, why would I want to repeat all that with Buzz?

    I’m generally a fan of Google products, but they just seem so late to the party with this app that I’ll give it a miss.

  38. 38.

    J.W. Hamner

    @Jay S:

    I don’t think that criticism is particularly accurate (anymore). The only way people could possibly see your contacts, from what I can tell, is if you:

    a) have a public profile
    b) your contacts have a public profile
    c) you both share the same contacts

    I don’t actually think many people using gmail have public profiles since you have to make an effort to do it… and if you make a public profile isn’t “publicity” sort of the point? I pretty sure I can offer up my public profile, and you won’t see anybody you don’t know if you click on it… though correct me if I’m wrong please! I have only 4 followers, and none of them have public profiles, so you should see nothing from them.

  39. 39.

    Jay S

    @J.W. Hamner:
    You only show yourself as following and being followed, with a few other private profile followers and followees. Even when I followed you I couldn’t see your linked Google reader. So for the moment your connections are fairly anonymous. However you have no control over whether they are public or private profiles. Hiding your contact list might be prudent. John Cole’s profile is public and a number of his followers and followees are public. Of course there are a lot of John Coles with public profiles, so it takes a little detective work looking at his follow lists to find him, and it might still be mistaken identity.

    c) you both share the same contacts

    What does this mean?
    (edit, I mean what can you see about shared contacts?)

    BTW I am not following you anymore, I just turned it on and off for testing.

  40. 40.

    trizzlor

    I was dismissive of twitter for a long time but I think I’m starting to get it. The idea is that everyone wants to blog at some point (these comment threads are a testament to that) but doesn’t necessarily want to start a full functioning site. With twitter or buzz, you can just broadcast interesting messages to all of your friends and then they can easily discuss them.

  41. 41.

    slag

    Google Buzz is Google’s biggest mistake so far, IMHO. Not the functionality, which I think is good–if you want to use it. The fact that they automatically have you following people and people following you whether you want to or not is a big problem. It pissed me off with Google Reader and it really pissed me off with buzz.

    I went through and unfollowed the people it automatically had me following and turned it off at the bottom of the gmail page. But it struck me as a serious infringement of my self-determination. Google is turning into Microsoft in that regard.

    Does anyone know how to turn the follow feature off in Google Reader? That seems to have become more intrusive as well since Buzz started the auto-follow feature.

  43. 43.

    MikeJ

    @slag: Today was the day for the grumpies. Tomorrow all you’ll hear about auto following is only old people, that is, over 12, think anything is wrong with it. Lighten up! Of course 12 year olds that haven’t hung out with republican congressmen haven’t been fucked yet, so in a way their naïveté is charming.

  44. 44.

    Patrix

    So if you didn’t actively ‘follow’ Ana Marie Cox and you are seeing her updates in Buzz, it means you have exchanged quite a few emails with her :)

  45. 45.

    Pat

    It seems like the kind of crap VPs of Marketing come up with. Hey, the buzz is all on Facebook. Why isn’t google the buzz anymore? Google Buzz! Kill me.

  46. 46.

    slag

    @MikeJ: Honestly, the internet is going to turn me into one of those crazy hill people that only comes down to civilization once a year to collect food and ammunition. (OK. The internet and like 50 other things, but still…) Goddamn 12-year-olds. Get off my lawn!

    @Patrix: Pas nécessairement. I auto-followed people who have only emailed me and that I never replied to.

  47. 47.

    Jay S

    @J.W. Hamner:

    I don’t actually think many people using gmail have public profiles since you have to make an effort to do it

    Buzz forces you to have a public profile to post or comment.

    Public profiles will probably be more common.

    BTW, What does it mean to follow someone with a private profile? What can you see?

  49. 49.

    J.W. Hamner

    @Jay S:

    You only show yourself as following and being followed, with a few other private profile followers and followees. Even when I followed you I couldn’t see your linked Google reader.

    I haven’t linked my Google reader account… because I don’t even really understand the concept of doing so…. and have made an effort to not have anything followable there, because… well… I’ve never liked book clubs… so I’m not sure whether it’s just my personal choices, or whether there is a possible privacy vulnerability.

    People like John Cole or Ana Marie Cox are on their own a bit, but the rest of us seem fine.

  50. 50.

    J.W. Hamner

    @Jay S: In for a penny in for a pound. Interesting.

    I’m only guessing, but from talking to coworker and my GF, who I’m technically sharing with… but who aren’t on it… I’m sharing with them only theoretically. If they do the buzz thing they’ll see what I’ve buzzed in the past, but otherwise nothing.

  51. 51.

    asiangrrlMN

    I do not like the buzz button because it is too damn colorful. I have set my gmail background to black, and the colors are muted as well. That damn button stood out like a sore thumb, so thanks to all who mentioned how to turn it off. I agree that if they want to tell people about this fab new feature and say, “This is how you turn it on”, have at it. I DO NOT like having in just appear one day.

  52. 52.

    MikeJ

    @asiangrrlMN: I like their theme that makes gmail look like mutt, except mutt, even though it runs in a terminal window, will color code messages based on your rules, while gmail’s terminal theme sticks to green on black.

  55. 55.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    GoogleBuzz’ main purpose is to burn Brick Oven Bill in the fiery brick furnace of hell for eternity.

    Heh. Yeah, you know you want it.

  56. 56.

    MikeJ

    @asiangrrlMN: mutt is terminal mail app that runs on unix boxes, although ports probably exist to other operating systems. It doesn’t do anything fancy like download your mail (fetchmail does that) or sort your mail (procmail does that), it allows you to read mail in a terminal window and that’s about it (although it will allow you to use helper applications to read html or pdfs).

    It’s a curmudgeon’s best friend. I also like it because I often get stuck inside corporate networks with no connection to the real world other than a tiny ssh tunnel, and it runs great in that case.

  58. 58.

    Jay S

    @DougJ:
    Following profile links is interesting, at least for a while.
    Dougj, You are not alone. Edit (Some big name short form blogger name redacted to not be to stalkerish) is (or was when I looked) following Ana Marie Cox as well. She’s hiding her follower/ing links, so its hard to know how big a following she has.

    It could be an interesting data mining endeavor. Sort of like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Who can find the most embarrassing follow link? Or the most bizarre facebook friends?

    Of course Google picked your beginning follow list, but they swear they know who your friends are. Who are we going to believe?

  59. 59.

    different church-lady

    The internet is becoming just like having an endless stream of Jehovah’s Witnesses on your front porch.

  60. 60.

    Kirk Spencer

    Buzz is off for me, and I don’t do twitter. I can actually see the utility, but not for me.

    I probably delete 2/3 of the things I write before sending, but only because I write such long posts. If it were quickies such as both those offer, I’d likely offend hundreds and demonstrate how foolish I am to thousands.

    Better to remain silent in that regard, I think.

  62. 62.

    Germane Jackson

    Peoples’ kneejerk grumpy grandpa routine about every single new social networking app/website/etc, gets really tiresome.

  63. 63.

    DaddyJ

    @Cat Lady: Electric hat! Nice!

    Or you could call it another prosthetic forehead for your real head.

    Going futher back, inflatable shoes, because we’re all bozos on this bus.

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