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Web Nuggets: Google Buzz

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  1.  (7725.1)
    Apparently Google has started rolling out a new social networking aspect, at least initially integrated into Gmail, called "Buzz". The working theory is to integrate the more popular aspects of Twitter and Facebook (probably others as well) into one place alongside your email and such.

    More info can be found on the Google Buzz page.

    Mine is already live. I'd definitely call it "preview" in nature, as there are a number of things that I suspect they'll change about it, but it's worth taking a look at.
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010 edited
     (7725.2)
    I speak as a Facebook user when I say, "Great, another place for me to read that the obsessive users have told us, once again, that they've had a bowel movement, that their cereal was especially crunchy today, or other minor aspects to their lives."

    Interesting move making it so that you can possibly import your Facebook to your Buzz-feed though. Cagey move to reduce Facebook's traffic (and therefore their revenue)?
  3.  (7725.3)
    Honestly, I don't read much of what my Facebook connections post. In fact, my profile pretty much states up front that unless someone is commenting on something I posted, or sending me a direct message, they shouldn't expect that I've seen something. I do occasionally comment on something if it pops up in the home page, but that's about it.

    That being said, I'm a huge fan of the prospect of having all of one's feed-in/feed-out networking and reading in one place. That's something that has yet to be done even remotely well. If Buzz can make it so that I can at least read select FB and Twitter posts, along with it's other features, I'm willing to see where it goes with it.

    There's also a 'smart' algorithm of some sort built into it that's supposed to suggest certain things that it thinks you might like that you may not see in your 'subscriptions', as well as guess what items you may not want to see and omit those. I'm rather curious to see how well that works.

    Do I think it's a poke at Facebook. I guarantee that's a factor in it's implementation... ;)
    •  
      CommentAuthorFinagle
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010
     (7725.4)
    I think there's something important and useful about Google's approach, which is working to actively break up the monocultural walled gardens that sites such as LiveJournal, MySpace and Facebook all share in an effort to make the "one feed" a true universal repository of updates but one that is agnostic as to their origin.

    I would much much rather have multiple dozens of topical, autonomous, and even temporary sites that spring up centered around interesting affiliations, and all held together by Google's RSS glue in the manner of Google News, than massive monocultures such as Facebook. And I think that is where things will wind up in the future, once everyone finally gets sick and tired of the mass herd migration from one site to another. Facebook is the last social networking site that most people will sign up for ever, as we understand it. Future "social networking" will look a lot more like what Google is attempting - if it works.
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      CommentAuthortim12s
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010
     (7725.5)
    Yay. File under GoogleWave.

    This strikes me - for my existence - as mostly useless. I already have G-Chat, and that's pesky enough. I only go to Gmail to check for archived emails, make sure something hasn't gone to Spam, or delete shit and it irritates me when some of my contacts leave their G-Chat open all the time and feel the need to chime in when I'm trying to work or do some virtual filing.

    As for importing Facebook? 90% of Facebook is now just... Twitter feeds.

    The only thing that I would find useful right now is a desktop aggregator like Growl or Twitterific, only less harder and intrusive, that can feed in Twitter, Mail, Facebook and all that other crap without me having to do a damn thing to go to it. Like a tabbed browser but not a browser, because let's face it - even Chrome sucks balls once the cache, plugins and cookies gets as bloated as Safari, Explorer and Firefox.
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeFeb 12th 2010
     (7725.6)
    So, apparently there are some issues with Buzz regarding privacy.

    Links:
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10451703-2.html
    http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/850241.html
  7.  (7725.7)
    I already have twitter. Why do I need this, with all its attendant privacy issues?
  8.  (7725.8)
    My friend @kissane calls it "web stalking centralized." And yeah, so far that's exactly what it seems to be.

    As interesting as I found, at first blush, a social networking system stitched together out of the other services we use, the way they've implemented it seems both dangerous, and not very useful.
  9.  (7725.9)
    Yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say that we're going to see some serious overhaul of this before it finds it's place. Google will be quick to correct any privacy issues that pop up, but that still leaves quite a bit of it open.

    Should be interesting to see how the next several days go with user feedback and where Google opts to (not) take it.
  10.  (7725.10)
    I'd just like to find a wordpress plugin for it that streams my buzzes. The two I've tried seem to clash with Comicpress.
  11.  (7725.11)
    I found that everything, including Wordpress itself, clashes with ComicPress.
    • CommentAuthorMarty Nozz
    • CommentTimeFeb 14th 2010
     (7725.12)
    I do like Google Buzz because no one's attempted to send me a piece of flare or invited me to join a cause or group.
    • CommentAuthorprof_k
    • CommentTimeFeb 14th 2010
     (7725.13)
    Like Wave, I'm filing Buzz in the "check this out again when it gets useful" drawer.
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      CommentAuthorMattDemers
    • CommentTimeFeb 14th 2010
     (7725.14)
    I find it's discouraging me to use Thunderbird as my main mail client; I'm going into Gmail's web GUI more and more.
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeFeb 18th 2010
     (7725.15)
  16.  (7725.16)
    Killed Google Buzz... again.
    The fuck no kill it option doesn't permenantly kill it. You can still click buzz on the bottom of the screem to turn it on again, but it does effectively turn it off as far as I can tell, in that it kills your buzz profile, contacts and stops people from following you.

    I'm still tetchy and unsure about it, since I've heard tales of people who've killed it still having people 'following' them.
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeFeb 19th 2010
     (7725.17)
    An earlier link said you had to block each person. Or there's the new nuclear-go-boom option that also deletes your Google profile
  18.  (7725.18)
    I did the block each person, then 'off' thing and people were *STILL* following my feeds.
    Yesterday the buzz tab appeared in settings, and I nuked it. However:
    there is still the option to turn ON buzz at the bottom of the page. Not sure if that'll vanish in a few days or not, however I've noticed that my hitchhikers on my feeds have vanished :)
    • CommentAuthorMarty Nozz
    • CommentTimeFeb 20th 2010
     (7725.19)
    Facebook's the same way. I deactived my account. Then got an e-mail thanking me for reactivating my account. I thought the internet had got undead on me and I was going to have to stake it and douse it with holy water. Turns out my wife wanted to see something on my Facebook and tried logging in and that alone reactivated the account. I doubt any of these social networking things has a true "begone forever and never grace my monitor again" option.
    •  
      CommentAuthorvoyou
    • CommentTimeFeb 20th 2010
     (7725.20)
    I did the block each person, then 'off' thing and people were *STILL* following my feeds.
    They might have been "following" your feeds, but I don't think they can actually see anything unless you specifically give them permission. I don't think Buzz is quite as bad from a privacy standpoint as some people are saying, although the way in which Google have distributed the relevant options in about 20 different places, and not really explained how it all works, does make it hard to be sure.

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