Buzz Off, Google
When Google announced and subsequently unleashed Buzz on the world, on February 9, 2010, it was hoping to have a social networking hit on its hands. Instead, it was met with a lot of frustration and anger from users, who found Buzz thrust upon them, turned on and connected to the rest of the internet before users even knew it.
And when I say connected, I mean connected! Everything in your Google profile, including all your contacts and links and your YouTube Profile (like your sharing links to Twitter accounts), Picasa, your Google Reader shared items, and more, became available to anyone familiar with your Gmail address who wanted to follow your Buzz account. And this wasn’t a choice to opt-in, but instead was switched on all at once from Google headquarters and shoved out the door.
A Bouncing Baby Buzz Bomb
This was a curious move from Google, for sure. To date, most of its new offerings have trickled out, by invitation only, in beta form. Gmail, Voice, Wave, even the Nexus One all have started slowly and only after being tested carefully and in small batches. Perhaps Google is feeling the pinch of all the potential search revenue to be earned in social media among Twitter, Facebook and other players and felt the need to quickly make its way into the game.
Nevertheless, it was clear that this was a very early alpha product that was pushed out far too quickly by Google in hopes of forcing its way into capturing market share. But, in doing so, Google ended up violating a lot of trust.
One of the angriest responses was a screed by the formerly anonymous blogger behind Fugitivus, whose entire private life was made available to her abusive ex-husband, by Google’s ham-fisted whim to enter the social networking space. I was myself distressed to find that within a day of Buzz being switched on for me and picking up my personal Twitter account, my 10-year old niece and 13-year old nephew were automatically subscribed to my Buzz stream without their knowledge and consent.
I love my niece and nephew dearly, but my personal Twitter stream occasionally contains adult content, and is not suitable for them. I emailed my sister to tell her, and she was frightened by what they were automatically signed up for without her knowledge, and found it to be a huge breach of her trust in Google.
We’re Not Gonna Take it
After a Harvard Law student filed a class action lawsuit, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint with the FTC, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation strongly cautioned Buzz users, Google weakly made some changes to its policies, suggesting you follow people instead of forcing you to, but it still remains an opt-out service. Now, several weeks after launch, you can finally completely turn off Buzz from a Gmail setting.
Buzz also turned out to be a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Twitter and Facebook represent two different paradigms of how one post to the internet. Twitter is asymmetrical: you’re not necessarily following those who follow you. You don’t always know who is reading what you post. Facebook is symmetrical- for someone to be your friend and follow you, you have to be their friend and follow them back, and you see what each other posts.
Each scenario presents a different thought process behind what you say and how you say it. Google’s mantra for however long now has been “Don’t be evil.” So when Buzz showed up, the natural assumption was that it was going to be a Facebook-like community experience, when in fact, it was more of an anonymous, back alley. No one had any idea what they were in for when they turned on Buzz, whether intentionally or accidentally, and the results left many confused.
Signal to Noise
Privacy issues aside, and mind you they’re pretty big issues to simply set aside, for a user, or for a big company like Google (you think they might have learned from Facebook’s and Twitter’s mis-steps?) the biggest problem with Buzz is all the noise. The purpose of Buzz is supposed to be to bring together all sorts of varied social media- photo streams, Twitter streams, RSS feeds, YouTube videos, blog posts, and allow people to comment on them and share them with friends.
Here’s the problem: everyone who is already interested in these streams already subscribes to them in one form or another. I really just don’t need to go to Google Buzz to get MJ’s latest food photos on Flickr or Rebecca’s latest Tweets or Scamper’s latest blog posts because I already get them in one form or another through RSS or directly from Twitter or Flickr. I already go to my friends’ YouTube channels and favorite their videos of their beautiful children, and comment on their RSS feeds that they follow in Google Reader.
The supposed added value that Buzz was to bring to the table was to allow you to comment on these streams within Buzz. Which meant… More noise. Another sign that Buzz was only half-baked when it was released: I check my Gmail account via POP with my email reader. Every time I posted something to Buzz or I commented on something via Buzz, *DING*! My email reader would chime letting me know that I had just commented on or posted something to Buzz. Which, I already knew. More noise.
How I Lost My Buzz
I’ve integrated Twitter so that it posts to my Facebook status when I want it to, and so it posts to my blog when appropriate. I have integrated my blog with Facebook as well. I use Brizzly to Tweet as often as Twidroid. I watch TV as often over the internet as I do on my DVR or live over the air. So I’m not afraid to mix and match my technologies and try new things when they make sense. I like Google products just fine: I use Chrome, Android, Apps, Gmail, Reader, Voice, and Wave (well, not really Wave, but who does?) but Buzz pissed me off to the point that I turned it off and explained to some of my friends and family how to do it as well, before Google made it a one-click switch.
I’m pretty much the sweet spot for who Google wants to to be using its product, yet I have it turned off, and sealed in a radioactive-proof box right now. Is it the privacy issue or the noise issue or the half-baked feel issue or the Google trying to dominate the world issue that is keeping me from being a Buzz fan? Honestly, it’s a combination of all of them. First and foremost, people like to be asked, not told.
From the start, Buzz should have been an opt-in service. I know Google wants to be bigger than Jesus, but that can’t be accomplished by destroying the privacy of people’s online information, especially who they choose to communicate with. My little black book, virtual or otherwise, is my property, not Google’s, to disseminate, much less without my permission.
A bigger challenge for Buzz: what does it bring to the table that isn’t already there. It seems that so far it’s just more noise. Wave seems to be suffering a similar fate. No one knows what to make of it: Is it email? Is it instant messaging? What does it do? One might ask the same of Buzz: What does it do besides add meta-noise? I’m still waiting to get a good answer to that…
That leaves the last two issues- what to make of a half-baked product put out by a company that wants to take over the world. Google’s much better at buying companies which put out great products and then making them its own, like it did with YouTube or GrandCentral, which became Google Voice. I’m sure the management at Google dreams of the day that Twitter is a Google product, but Buzz is not the way to scare anyone into selling the farm.
If I was to come back to Buzz, I’d need a compelling reason. Google has yet to come up with any. So it plays nice with Maps and my phone. Whoop-de-do. So do a lot of things already. So I can “Like” things. Neat-o. This is a case of not getting the point, being late to the game, and not having anything of real value to offer. Google has so many things up their sleeve in their Labs and in other products, it’s surprising that Buzz is so still-born.
A Bone for Google Buzz 2.0
I’m not on Google’s marketing or engineering teams but lemme toss them a bone for Buzz 2.0: How about real-time sharing? Leverage Google Chat and YouTube to do something that other services can’t offer yet. Instead of abusing trust, build on it and create something that people will want to use. Make people want to queue to sign up for it. Remember the mystique surrounding having the first Gmail account? That was something people were excited about, and you should want to replicate, not the rush to tell you to Buzz off. So instead of bullying your way into the market and garnering bad attention, try earning your way in with a thoughtful, well-executed experience like you have done so successfully in the past, and maybe I’ll be Buzzing again.
