Google: We May Offer Buzz Independently From Gmail | Hacker News Reader

Google: We May Offer Buzz Independently From Gmail

searchengineland.com

31 pointswhite_eskimo23 comments

Headline here is completely wrong: the article stresses they'll keep it in GMail, they're just going to offer it to non-gmail accounts. This'll be GApps and is unsurprising, to me.

I can't see the original article any more, but the relevant piece is quoted in this post, whose interpretation agrees with the headline:

http://mashablemirror.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-is-st...

However, they contacted Google to confirm and were told: "No, we’re not planning to remove Buzz from Gmail. Among some of the features we’re considering is building a standalone Buzz experience in addition to the one in Gmail, but I can’t confirm anything right now."

The lack of consistency suggests that Google is having a hard time deciding how to handle this but knew they had to address it quickly. I hope they back down and fix the privacy issues, but I'm not sure they would think Buzz will be worth their bother unless they can convince people to give up the expectation of privacy. Meanwhile, I've voted with my mouse by following these instructions:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1121137

Ah, looks like the headline's been changed: it read "Google may remove Buzz from GMail" when I saw it.

The original headline reflected a common interpretation of what was said, but either Google didn't intend that interpretation or they changed their minds.

All of this could have been avoided if they simply had a button that asked users if they wanted google to automagically add social contacts from gmail and give users a preview of what that would look like.

They should have also clearly indicated in the preview what was private and what was public.

BTW, what happened to their beta testing / invite only methodology? Also doesn't google beta test things internally first? If so, I'm sure they would have gotten very similar feedback from their 10,000+ employees.

It's a land grab. They had to gain users and build social/advertising groups quickly. I think there's something going on behind the scenes with Twitter and/or Facebook that terrifies Google right now. Otherwise they wouldn't have made such a bone headed move. They know better. The deployment strategy was a carefully calculated risk in my opinion.

That's very interesting. What could Facebook possibly do to terrify Google? Maybe I'm not being creative, but I can't think of anything offhand. I'd love to hear some conjectures.

Maybe Facebook moving into the e-mail area scares Google?

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/05/facebooks-project-titan-a-f...

This would put Facebook in the middle of even more conversations/social interactions.

Once it's gone from gmail, nobody will use it and nobody will care. Massive fail for Google, strike two in the social networking department.

Agreed, it won't really work outside of Gmail. Out of sight, out of mind and all that. It really needs clear privacy settings, clear demarcation of email contacts and social contacts (with the option for contacts to be in both).

Yep. The only reason it caught on was because it was made available through a tool everyone uses already.. kind of like how Internet Explorer is used..

And with landing pages that have obscene conversion rates (which is why people feel raped IMO).

Strike three if you count OpenSocial. I have no idea if you should though.

Jaiku?

Orkut?

We're on strike three at the most conservative count.

Good point, I forgot about Jaiku. I was counting Orkut as strike one though.

Dodgeball seems like a good candidate for number five.

I think this would be about strike six.

Not sure if the article got updated, but it says: "Horowitz stressed that Google would still offer a version of Buzz within Gmail, in addition to any independent version".

I don't use it because it is Gmail. I don't want more distractions.

Stream based social networking is a mainstay web application. If it can be done better than Twitter and Facebook, it makes sense for Google to do it. Gmail provides a ready-made userbase, and unlike Jaiku from years ago, can be built from the ground up by Google.

Why doesn't Google adopt OpenMicroBlogging for Buzz? At the same time, I like the idea of posting long posts into my stream. Buzz should look at bloggers as well as micro-bloggers as potential users. The opportunity to create a news gathering network exists.

I think Google should remove Buzz from GMail by default. Technically it probably makes no difference. Same privacy risks either way. The bigger issue is perception. I think most people approach GMail as a private space. They are very aware of the private data they keep in GMail. They've been using GMail for users under this assumption of privacy. All the sudden this public information exchange is one click away. If every bit of my information on Facebook was leaked I wouldn't be too upset because I've always approached it as a public space. I have an expectation that nothing on FaceBook is really private. I have an expectation everything in GMail is.

This was a most troubled release from google, almost everything was done wrong, to alienate common non-techy users and privacy advocates. Just check out the Buzz help forum (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=3a6323...), it's pure hatred.

However I would still love if they have the guts to make it stay. Out of all attempts at social media (i.e. facebook, ff and twitter) this one looks like the only acceptable solution which does not seem to suck (no ads, no flashy children toys, no annoying "updates" from hardly known people, and no character limit which dumbs down posts from even the brightest authors). If it is removed from gmail, it will sadly die. If it stays, public will learn to live with it.

Please update this headline, it's inaccurate

Google's social skills are like Frankenstein ...

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