Google Buzz

[Klaus]

Looks like Google is entering the twitter/facebook game....
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Google Introduces Google Buzz
February 9th, 2010 Posted in Online by Bertrand

Earlier today, Google held a press conference at its Mountain View headquarters where a new social networking service called “Google Buzz” was introduced. Google Buzz is built right into Gmail, and it will focus on 5 key features inspired or based on different elements from various social networking websites like Twitter, Foursquare, FriendFeed, et cetera. It will basically stream updates, photos, videos, and links from your Gmail contacts. You can also integrate these updates with other social services like Twitter, Google Reader, Picasa, and Flickr.
The 5 key features Google Buzz focuses on are:
1- Auto-following: Since you already have a network built in your Gmail account, there won’t be a need to set up anything or build an entirely new network of friends. The moment you sign-into your account, you can start enjoying the new social features.
2- Rich, fast sharing experience:Google Buzz uses the same Gmail interface. It also users keyboard shortcuts, so you can share updates very easily and fast.
3- Public and private sharing: Public entries will be indexed in Google Search. You have the option to mark messages as private and block people that you don’t want to see your updates.
4- Inbox integration: Since the new service is built into Gmail, you can easily reply and comment right from your inbox
5- Just the good stuff: Google is looking to “filter out the noise” by allowing only the relevant updates you want to know.
Google Buzz will be gradually rolled out to all Gmail accounts in the course of the next few days. Google Buzz will also be available for Google Apps in the near future with added features for organizations and schools. Check out the video below for more information.


The iPhone and Android URL is:
buzz.google.com

[Eric]

I'm set up and digging it.

erictnielson@gmail.com

[Klaus]

Fuck you, Google
February 11, 2010 by Harriet Jacobs
I use my private Gmail account to email my boyfriend and my mother.

There’s a BIG drop-off between them and my other “most frequent” contacts.

You know who my third most frequent contact is?

My abusive ex-husband.

Which is why it’s SO EXCITING, Google, that you AUTOMATICALLY allowed all my most frequent contacts access to my Reader, including all the comments I’ve made on Reader items, usually shared with my boyfriend, who I had NO REASON to hide my current location or workplace from, and never did.

My other most frequent contacts? Other friends of Flint’s.

Oh, also, people who email my ANONYMOUS blog account, which gets forwarded to my personal account. They are frequent contacts as well. Most of them, they are nice people. Some of them are probably nice but a little unbalanced and scary. A minority of them — but the minority that emails me the most, thus becoming FREQUENT — are psychotic men who think I deserve to be raped because I keep a blog about how I do not deserve to be raped, and this apparently causes the Hulk rage.

I can’t block these people, because I never made a Google profile or Buzz profile, due to privacy concerns (apparently and resoundingly founded!). Which doesn’t matter anyway, because every time I do block them, they are following me again in an hour. I’m hoping that they, like me, do not realize and are not intentionally following me, but that’s the optimistic half of the glass. My pessimistic half is of the abyss, and it is staring back at you with a redolent stink-eye.

Oh, yes, I suppose I could opt out of Buzz — which I did when it was introduced, though that apparently has no effect on whether or not I am now using Buzz — but as soon as I did that, all sorts of new people were following me on my Reader! People I couldn’t block, because I am not on Buzz!

Fuck you, Google. My privacy concerns are not trite. They are linked to my actual physical safety, and I will now have to spend the next few days maintaining that safety by continually knocking down followers as they pop up. A few days is how long I expect it will take before you either knock this shit off, or I delete every Google account I have ever had and use Bing out of fucking spite.

Fuck you, Google. You have destroyed over ten years of my goodwill and adoration, just so you could try and out-MySpace MySpace.

175 Votes

[Eric]

I've been reading about the privacy concerns. How Google Buzz did the same thing that Facebook did (scouring your contacts to find other Facebook users) but they did it without explicitly telling you that it was going to do it.

I have read these types of "horror stories" from people who's ex found out that they were saying things about them, or Google Buzz accidentally exposed them for having affairs/cheating on their current gf/bf.

I gotta say, these all make me laugh. People are idiots. You can turn off Buzz, you can unfollow/block people, you can uncheck a box that doesn't allow people to see your followers/following. Yes, for someone who blindly clicks through next, next, next and then stuff like this happens, it's always amusing that they blame the website/company, and not themselves for not doing their homework.

This lady sounds like the typical imbecile who is just angry and spiteful enough to blame everyone around her instead of her own dumb ass.

Me? I am enjoying Google Buzz. It's easier to comment on people's Tweets than Twitter (in my opinion), doesn't have a message size limit, integrates cleanly with other Google apps that I already use, pictures/videos are slick, and the geo-tagging is cool. I'm not sure why someone who's so concerned with their privacy would be using a social networking tool that BY DESIGN is made to tell people where you are when you post, who you are friends with and who is following you (just like Twitter, Facebook, etc). Go STFU and buy 10 more cats lady, we all know your "boyfriend" that you're emailing is an account you just made up for yourself.

/rant off

[Klaus]

Fucking board ate my long post. Highlights are:

I like Google Buzz.
Facebook Privacy is flawed and too open.
Google should stay closed by default.
I like Google is open to changing Buzz from user feedback.

[Klaus]

More info.


Google Buzz Still Has Major Privacy Flaw
Nicholas Carlson

Last night, Google (GOOG) tweaked its Twitter/Facebook competitor Google Buzz in order to address some widely-discussed consumer privacy concerns.

The changes are good, but they don't go far enough.

Let's be crystral clear: Our problem with Google Buzz has always been that, during new account setup, new users have to opt-out of publishing two lists: their followers and who is following them. That wouldn't be a problem, except these lists are made up of the people users have, in their past, emailed and chatted with most.

The tweaks Google pushed last night do not change this option to opt-in. They do, however, make it easier for users to opt-out.

Previously, when a new user published their first message on Buzz, a dialogue box that looks like this popped up:
http://static.businessinsider.com/image/4b733eda00000000006136ef/buzz-flaw.jpg

Now, this dialogue box looks like this:
http://static.businessinsider.com/image/4b755cac0000000000d44744/google-improves-buzz-privacy.jpg


That's a very good improvement and we're glad Google made it. We especially appreciate how fast Google made these changes. Nice work, Google Buzz product manager Todd Jackson!

However, we still have two immediate problems with the new set-up:

1. The box next to "show the list of people I'm following and the list of people following me on my public profile" is checked by default. Since this is an option to expose more of the user's private information, it should be unchecked until the users checks it. If Google wants to explain to new users that it thinks their experience will be better if they check the box, then it should.

2. The sentence next to this new check box doesn't fully explain to users what they're allowing Google Buzz to publish -- that is, a list of the people they email and chat with most. It should read "Show the list of people I'm following and the list of people following me on my public profile. Note: Right now, this list is made up of the people you email with and chat with most. Please review the list."

Now, let's be clear. We TOTALLY understand why Google believes it is better for everybody that this be an opt-in option. Users get a service that's already set up. Public follower lists also make it very easy for users to find new people to follow. That's useful and it helps Google grow Buzz much faster.Finally, when Google tested Google Buzz at the Googleplex, everyone agreed that this way was better and no one had any problems opting-out of settings that made them uncomfortable.

But we have a message for the brilliant people behind Google Buzz (and the rest of Google's products): the rest of the world is NOT like you. These privacy concerns aren't for the incredibly computer savvy, the patient beta testers, or Twitter and Facebook power users.

Our concerns are for the people who, when encountering a new service, click "save and continue" until it is completely set-up and functional, reading as little text in various dialogue boxes as they can. These people are the people we call the "normals."

Some of these "normals" are physicians or mental health professionals who have patients they email with. Some of these people are journalists (ahem!) dealing with anonymous sources. Some of these people are spouses who are finding a safe way out of bad marriages with the help of someone their spouse doesn't know about. Some of them are junior staffers, secretly arranging to get a 50% raise going to a new company to become a manager for the first time.

None of these people should be expected to "catch" the fact that, when they begin using Google Buzz without changing any default settings, they are about to expose to the world these private relationships.

Google should be polite and ask them if they would like to.