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Comment by apike | Hacker News Reader

The oddest thing about Buzz was that it's automatically following everybody I've ever conversed with using GMail, whether or not I know them. They successfully avoided the "nobody's here" problem that Wave had, but by opting in everybody who uses GMail, it created the opposite problem.

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Really? I was only automatically following my real friends.

I keep my full address book in Google Contacts (1000+ ppl, including long-gone friends/workmates/classmates). Perhaps because I use Gmail as my main personal account it was able to figure out who was who.

I used gmail for maybe a year many years ago, Google Buzz ended up following people I've never talked to, including someone who spammed me once.

Heh, interesting, I'd say it definitely was made to jump start off of Gmail users, works well for everyone I know, but looks like there are exceptions.

Did you use Reader and share items in there? If so it seems as if Buzz just re-uses those settings.

Interesting. They might be using a heuristic, or they might be auto-following people who follow me from their address books.

Well, you do still need to click the "start" button. There is a "no thanks" link right on the Buzz intro page. Technically that's an opt-in system. They've just made opting in ridiculously simple.

Not for me, my buzz is empty, and I've conversed with others using gmail before. My gmail address book, however, is probably empty, since I don't use that.

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