Google Buzz
Posted in Observations,Tech — by Don on 02/11/10

The latest, greatest thing to come from Google was announced this week and has been rolling out to Gmail users as well. I finally got mine turned on yesterday and have a few thoughts.

If you want more information about what Google Buzz is, checkthis news search.

It most closely resembles FriendFeed, but it works like a cross between Twitter and Facebook. Being built into Gmail is a bonus, so you get one stop shopping. It seems to be pretty cool, but there are a few things I’m noticing.

  • When sharing items from other sites, they double post
  • It would appear that I’m limited to following only my friends or friends of friends
  • It’s slow. Maybe not so much slow as it is laggy, especially when opening images.
  • Sharing a video is slightly cumbersome and, as far as I know, it only works with YouTube. More testing is still needed
  • Unlike FriendFeed, I’m not able to add any site to my feed that I like via XML. I thought that it was tied to the sites listed in my Google Profile, but that is not the case

I think it’s cool, but I have the distinct impression that it is not quite done. Yet.

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(3) comments
  • Michaelb

    My question is what is Buzz sharing?

    I didn’t go in to my Gmail account and turn it on – so hopefully it’s not sharing anything.

    My impression of Buzz, at least at first glance is that it’s sharing more than I want to share with the world… Call me paranoid if you wish, but my preference is to share less online not more which was why I’ve been so slow to sign up with Twitter and Facebook and don’t use Friend Feed and the like…

    • don

      It is actually on by default in your gmail. You would need to go in and turn it off (at the bottom of the Gmail page) if you don’t want to use it.

      It’s a cross between Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed, kinda.

      It only shares what you want to share from sites you bring in (youtube, flickr, twitter, google reader).

      And, you are paranoid. Go in and turn it off. I don’t like it myself and don’t see a use for it any time soon.

  • http://www.chrisjupin.com Chris

    To be honest I’ve already given up on Buzz. Also appears that many of my gmail contacts have done the same (or restricted what they post). I think the implementation is half-ass, it’s kludgy, and confusing to many non-tech folks. I think it’s great how easy it is to get followers but I’m not sure I need yet another social networking outlet when it doesn’t offer anything more. It took me a while to even give the “share with google reader” idea a try.

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