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Google Buzz has been up for less than a week and they have made their second announcement based on user feedback. Over the weekend they said on their latest blog post they have been addressing user concerns and will be making some to the system over the next few days.
Google Changes the Buzz Start-Up Experience
One of the first things the Buzz team did was change the way the way Buzz automatically follows user contacts. Originally, when the system first was released, after the start-up process, users would already had a list of followers and users they were following based on who they contacted most through Gmail. To us, this looked like our contacts were open to the world and we had followers before we even had a profile setup.
On Thursday, Google made their first changes to make it easier for new users during the setup and configuration process to where they can set contacts to private easier. Starting this week, instead of Buzz automatically following your email contacts you talk with the most, they will be changing this system to auto-suggest model. What this means to the user is, they will not follow anyone until you review the suggestion list and tell the system what to follow.
As for those already using Buzz, Google will be rolling out a new version for them in the next few weeks. The version will give the Buzz users a second chance to review and select who they follow and if they want to share this with the public.
Another change to Buzz is, Buzz will no longer automatically share your public Picasa Web Albums and Public Google Reader accounts. Buzz only shares items in your reader that you set as public and will share that with the world. If you have not shared it should still be set to private.
The third change they will make based on user feedback is, there will be a tab in the Gmail user settings to disable Google Buzz or hide it. The Buzz team will also add links in the start-up process so you can try it and remove if needed.
These are some great changes, and its great that the Buzz team is moving quickly to make these changes and listening to the users. Other social networks, should follow Google’s lead and listen to their users. But, Google should have thought about these issues in the first place and never released Buzz with these settings as default. There are a lot of users out there that still like having some privacy, and they should of had the choice during the start up process to make these changes and not have to be forced to go looking for these settings to turn on privacy.
What are your thoughts?
About James
I don't know if it's just me, but I still prefer Twitter over Google Buzz, at the moment anyway, it seems to be another network for me to try and keep up with and these days, time isn't really on my side.
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Karen,
Same here. Google Buzz is great I have met some other people on there, but I think twitter will be the way to go. I play with Google Buzz when my gmail is open but, thats when I am at school or work. I use outlook and pull my Gmail to outlook. So until Gmail Buzz integrated into hootsuite or tweetdeck I wont us it much. But I will keep the Gmail Buzz buttons.
My recent post Google Announces Improvements and Response to Feedback
I am still not completely sold on Google Buzz. I can't see much difference between it and Friendfeed (which I never use).
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Same here, I play with it when I can. I think it is like FeedBurner. I do use it but not much. I also think it is more like Cliqset. I think both cliqset and Google Buzz will be a better network than FriendFeed, they can do a lot more. Google will evenutally beat out friendfeed and cliqset. As long as they stay popular, they will have the budget for research and development, so they can make their system better than the competitors. I use Buzz, Cliqset and Friend, but only to feed my twitter feeds.
My recent post Google Buzz Has Privacy Flaws!
I don't see all the people I follow on twitter and facebook moving to Buzz. Plus I use Gmail for domains, which they haven't added Buzz to.
My gmail for domains, pops my normal gmail account. So I have to log into that account just to look at buzz.
No thanks, I'll stick with twitter and facebook.
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Thats the same for me. I do use gmail web when I am at work school, or at public computesr. Those are the only times I play with it. As for my followers, only a handful are on buzz, and those are mostly the big twitter guys I follow.
Even you do not use Buzz, I would recommend using them to advertise your blog articles. I have seen a small traffic increase from articles I have submitted to Buzz.. If sites like Mashable are finding it to be a good tool and are supporting it, I believe that this tool will become popular for now. So adding the Buzzer (Mashable uses and I see Buzzes with over 720 hits on it) doesn't hurt and if you build a decent following then you can and will drive more traffic to your site. I only use Buzz to submit articles to and feed my twitter tweets to as well. I get new followers every day. I go in approve them and not worry about the system.
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It certainly will be interesting to watch Buzz grow 🙂
I wonder what changes they already have in the pipeline!
Here is a nice model on how to use Google Buzz that you may find interesting…
http://www.knowledgegenes.com//home.aspx?kgid=107…
Cheers,
Ollie