No buzz with Buzz…

[almostwitty]

So Google Buzz has launched, and I’ve had a quick play with it.

Unfortunately, it’s done the same thing as many recent Google product launches – it hasn’t brought anything new to the table, aside from the sheer gargantuan amount of data it stores about me. And the only reason it has so much data about me is because I’m pretty much wedded to Google, thanks to their still-superlative Gmail service (tabs instead of categories for email! It’s the future, I tell you!) and consequently, me adopting every other Google service there is, including their mobile phone system.

Which of course has its consequences. Within an hour of using Buzz, I found 10 people following me who were total strangers, who I’d never heard from before. This happens a lot more on Twitter (and to a certain extent on Facebook), but because those services don’t touch my email, it doesn’t seem so sinister. But with Buzz integrating with my email account, it does. There is a suggestion that these strangers found me via Google Profiles and that I ought to switch it off – but I’m quasi-reluctant to do that since otherwise, I could disappear off Google search results. (Then again, my name isn’t exactly my brand these days)

The huge flaw, of course, with integrating social networking so tightly with email, is that everyone’s email boxes are already groaning under the strain of spam, newsletters and the other ways people are trying to reach us via email. Adding another system to your email just adds to the risk of people declaring Inbox Surrender and leaving email alone entirely.

Ultimately, it’s hard to see why Google made another attempt into social networking, after the days of Orkut. They’ve built a new private members club opposite the most popular pub in town, spied upon everyone going into the pub to try and connect everyone, and then … just opened the front door – only letting in people who are members of the club. No special offers, no enticements, no new jukebox in the corner, nothing. There’s nothing in Buzz that isn’t already on other social networking sites – and of course, nothing that beats their main enemies, Facebook or Twitter. and ironically, they seem to be quite swamped – picking up blog posts and Twitter feeds from other areas of my digital life seems to take a day.

But like the famed Hotel California, once I’ve checked in, I can’t seem to leave…

Mirrored from almost witty.

Comments

[theta-g.livejournal.com]

As with Wave and dang near every other new Google product, Google Buzz is unavailable to those of us with Gafydd (Google Apps for your Domain). I've had to run separate accounts to try them out.

The iPad and Buzz are reactionary products that will undergo much change before they can hope to supplant their competitors.

[almostwitty]

But when Gmail came out, there were already a bunch of webmail systems. What Google did with Gmail (labels, storage space) was revolutionary.

Google ought to know, more than anyone, that there's no point launching a me-too product unless you've got something different to all your competitors.

Personally, I've never quite seen the point of Gafydd.

[theta-g.livejournal.com]

There's a weird disconnect between Gafydd and a Google account where your user ID is a non-Gmail email address. They're *almost* the same thing until you try to use other Google products. Irritating.

Because my web hosting made it so easy to get into, I haven't been masochistic enough to look into pulling out.

The only benefit is that I don't look like a Gmail user to the world despite having Gmail and its best-in-class spam filtering.

Your emails to me don't typically present themselves as having come from Gmail either. Do you have to constantly choose an alternate identity to communicate that way? The following sounds much more irritating than what I have now:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22370

[almostwitty]

That's odd - all my emails go through Gmail with an alternative email address, so it should look like it comes thru Gmail, albeit with an @applegrass.com tag.

Of course, my last email thread with you was via LJ...

[sentience.livejournal.com]

IT IS PITCH BLACK. YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE EATEN BY A GRUE.

[almostwitty]

Oooh... Google Buzz as a way of playing those Fantasy books from when I was young. "Do you grope your way in the dark or try to smell the grue?"

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I like Buzz, but it's basically facebook on google. I don't see the real benefit.

However, google Buzz has yet to hit me up with irritating apps or change it's format, so maybe less features is a feature, not a bug.