Buzz this

So Google’s gone and created a new time sucker called Buzz. It’s basically the same idea as Friendfeed but they pushed it out so that it’s forced available to all gmail users. Let me try to explain the idea behind it:

I post information in all kinds of different places on the internet: on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Goodreads, my picture website, etc. Friendfeed (and Buzz) lets me aggregate all that information in a single place so that people (like you!) who care can go one place and see all the information I’m posting and that I’m interested in. And you can do so with all the people you’re interested in, just by subscribing to their Buzzes and then going to your Buzz site (Buzz is an option below Inbox in gmail. You can also get there from within gmail by selecting G then B on your keyboard.)

 

And on top of that, we can comment and have conversations about this information. This means that knowledge, brainstorming and discussion can occur in a way that tools such as Twitter do not really handle well.

I’m not a huge fan of the interface of Buzz at the moment, but I do like the idea of it (which is why I like Friendfeed so much). There’s some implementation issues that irk me though:

1) Every time I add something to Buzz, it emails me to let me know I posted something. Um…yeah. I know. I created a filter to find all emails about Buzz from me and set that to skip the inbox and delete them. It does email me when someone else comments on something I’ve posted, which can be handy but can also overwhelm your inbox. I created a filter to find all Buzz emails and skip the inbox and put them in a folder (gmail calls them Labels) called Buzz Stuff so that I can wander through there at will. I should have the option to enable or disable this email notification. And it should never email me when I post something (or make that an option as well. Off by default). That’s just ridiculous.

2) There’s been all kinds of agita about privacy issues, which Google has been scrambling to address. Basically, I should be able to say whether my information is posted when I subscribe to other people’s Buzzes. They’re not quite there yet. You can hide your Google Profile, which is the first step in doing so, but Google needs to improve this.

3) Navigation is kinda wonky.

4) Make it easier for me to see what’s new and what’s been updated with comments. There’s a yellow bar on the left side to show new comments, but I don’t see a good indicator that something is new since the last time I visited.

Anyways, you might want to check it out. You can check out or subscribe to my Buzz by going to http://profiles.google.com/amygeek (of course, you need a gmail account to play…)

Also, if you don’t want Buzz enabled in gmail, look at the bottom of your gmail Inbox screen and you’ll see the option to turn off buzz. Just click on that!