Gail Helmer's Social Media and Web Marketing Blog

I was looking forward to Google Buzz, it appeared to have the makings of the perfect social networking tool. A cross between Friendfeed, Facebook and Twitter. However, after only a few hours I was pulling my hair out, and wondering how this monster could be unleashed on my already tormented email box? In the midst of writing a blog listing all that was wrong with Buzz, Google swiftly came out on Saturday, February 13th with an apology for their Buzz attack and announced immediate changes to Buzz that resolved, for the most part, and addressed the concerns that were raised.

Google has made the following updates as a result of the feedback they received:

1 – Auto-following will become auto-suggest. While I can understand that Google was compensating for and learning from the complaints we had with no one to network with when we tried the Google Wave, but auto-following only led to complaints and a host of privacy issues. “Don’t decide for me who I should want in my network.” With auto-suggest we can pick and choose our social network.

2 – Remove auto-connect to Picasa and Google Reader. Google thought because we had “public” accounts that we would appreciate automated connecting the content. It is true my Google Reader is public, that is not a concern, but I am a heavy user of Google reader and flag numerous articles in a day. With auto-connect, suddenly your inbox and mine is filling up with my research, last time I checked unwanted email is called Spam. So I am relieved to learn Google has chosen to remove auto-connect. And I apologize to all my contacts for my day of Buzzing your inbox.

3 – Update Buzz public and privacy settings. You can now have better control over your Buzz settings. Whether you want to share your network publicly or display Buzz in your Gmail. While this is helpful, I notice there is no setting to not have a “buzz” sent to your Gmail. Personally I don’t want any of my social networks sending me email notifications, I have enough email in a day with my consulting business that I don’t want extra work thank you.

I do appreciate the quick response to fixing Buzz that Google has had, and impressed with their apology, “We quickly realized that we didn’t get everything quite right. We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We’ll continue to do so.” There is definitely many lessons in the right and wrong way for product launches that other companies could learn from here. Actually, that would make a great future blog post.

Many of you have asked me what I have thought of Google Buzz. It is not that I don’t like Google Buzz and these changes certainly make it more palatable. The way I see it Buzz fails on two factors that I believe are critical in any competitive market and that would influence my decision to use it. The product should fill a need and/or, be better then the competition.

My Google Buzz is turned off until further notice.

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