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Two Scoops of Buzz
Lots of Buzz buzz is still running through the internets yet, so here's a bit more of it, just in case you aren't burnt out yet. Google has added a one-button disable option to totally remove the system from Gmail. I'm sure someone there sure wishes that had been on by default. This is partially in response to a class action complaint and follows earlier cleanup efforts as well as an apology for auto-follow. Since there is no Facebook interaction, I still wonder what traction they will get. But maybe this means the end of Twitter.
I just ignore the bugger. No need for me to nuke. Unless Google has added really cool special effects.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
Twitter's power is that you dont have to go there to use it or update it. I've got 90,000,000 twitter apps to choose from on EVERY platform. Hell even my home automation gear from crestron has twitter interoperability.
Twitter has critical mass and support on everything.. Buzz has none of that currently.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
While a lot of people are using this fiasco as evidence that Google's a bunch of techies who don't understand users, I can't really believe that it was totally unforseen and accidental. Google made a conscious decision to leverage their existing social graph of webmail users by, as automatically as possible, turning it into an actual social-network graph. If they hadn't done that, Buzz would probably not have jump-started very quickly, but now it has a huge built-in userbase. Even if a bunch of people disable it now, they're probably still way ahead in terms of total users than where they would've been if they had played nice.
So may turn out they did know what they were doing, at least from a business perspective.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Not to mention there's less motivation to go to a new social network when there are existing ones already set up with many people using it. I highly doubt Google can go far here.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
I'm guessing it would be the same thing he does every night ... fuck Demi Moore.
How was slashdot going to make money?
Advertising.
Yeah, Google didn't stand a chance against the likes of Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, their spunky little upstart 'gmail' thing took forEVER just to get out of beta! Can't say that anyone was really attracted to it, what with all the established options out there. Who will take it seriously?!!
No, Buzz has something better... Interoperability with -every- site out there. If the site has an RSS feed for your updates, you can bring them into Buzz really easily. If it doesn't, the site can choose to integrate more directly with Buzz.
The only thing I've found lacking in Buzz is the ability to find and follow random people. With twitter, when I'm learning Japanese, I can watch the live twitter global feed and find people posting interesting things in Japanese and follow them. Buzz doesn't have that... Yet.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
And all Google has to do is create a unique Buzz email address to send updates to (like Facebook has recently done), and you get instant support on any platform capable of sending email.
When Facebook came out with the unique email address to upload images and update status, I dumped my Blackberry Facebook app and I just use email now. So at this point, switching to Buzz would be a matter of changing the email address my pictures and updates go to.
This would make new Buzz apps for platforms trivial to implement.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Not to mention there's less motivation to go to a new social network when there are existing ones already set up with many people using it. I highly doubt Google can go far here.
Eh thats what people thought with MySpace - but look at Facebook now.
Google, being the power house that it is, could easily build the apps and operability that Twitter has. Except for ONE snag:
I think the biggest thing holding it back will be its competitors. Given that Google has broken into the Smartphone market with the Droid and all that - I doubt Apple is going to approve any apps that let you update your Buzz.
You can make Buzz a billion times better than twitter and implement new features, but if the iPhone holds a reasonable market share, and the iPhone doesn't let you update it, it's not likely to take off.
Inversely - if somehow this DOES become more popular, an odd occurence I couldn't see happening, iPhone sales could drop unless they allow an App for Buzz.
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it's 140 characters limit is great to avoid loads of bullshit. One of the greatest things of twitter is precisely that; it forces you to go to the point.
Dear
What exactly is twitter doing that couldn't be done with existing blogging sites that have email updates? Nothing says you have to write 2k words on your blog post, you could write 120 characters on any blogging site and do the same thing.
I do like the idea of pushing towards more open standards. Email is a standard everyone can agree with, everyone can interoperate with. I can send mail from my phone to someone on a mac or a pc or linux. I can swap out clients if I find one I like more. I do like the idea of transitioning these sorts of services to protocols and then you're selecting the provider you want based on how that protocol is implemented.
I see value in what Facebook does even though I dislike the way it's implemented, similar to the way I like what Exchange/Outlook is trying to do while hating everything about the way it's actually done.
There's been talk about trying to open up the silos represented by these applications. You have your data in twitter, you have your data in facebook, you have your data in google, and there's lots of duplication across each. Facebook will talk to google to import your data but that's a bit clunky and is still just putting your stuff in another silo. I like the idea of more interoperability but am also concerned about the potential for holes. I don't mind if my facebook gets hacked because there's nothing important on there, nothing personal or embarrassing. I don't put anything there I wouldn't mind seeing on the front page of the new york times. But if facebook had tight access to my gmail, suddenly a hole in facebook could become a hole in gmail. Not so good.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I've seen this facebook group that states they are a group of people who are going to drop Facebook once it starts charging $2.95 per month to use it. I don't know if there is anything to this, but if Fb starts to charge for use, then Buzz will have all sorts of traction.
Not 'closed' in that sense. Closed as in finite (in comparison to the other services where anyone with any email address can use). To be able to use buzz, one needs to sign up for another email account, something not many people will do easily.
Was why I didn't use Buzz. Made sure it was disabled as soon as I could. I don't want some spheres of my life intersecting.
An example of what can go wrong, and generate big lawsuits in the process of failing.
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Facebook HAS decimated Myspace though..... sooooo
Volume.
If you are on the newest version, just scroll to the bottom of the screen and click older version. This is not the HTML only version, but the one just before the new interface upgrade. I find it responsive, less cluttered...and no buzz.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
If you had your Google Profile set up to be public, then people could find the information that is in the Google Profile. Buzz just gave people a link directly to your Google Profile, more or less. What it all comes down to: if you don't want the public to know something, don't post it in a public profile.
Odd, I turned my stereo all the way up but I'm still broke.
Free Martian Whores!
Google's notoriously short attention span.
You can post Buzz by email to buzz@gmail.com from your gmail account. So as long as your gmail account is setup in your mail client, this is in place now.
Why oh why must they force the integration of Google Buzz and Google Reader? I use google reader every day, often share things with various contacts, and read things that have been shared with me. It was awesome. Then Google Buzz came along and forced integration of the two. I don't want Google Buzz but if I go ahead and remove it, it'll remove the sharing abilities I had within Google Reader. I understand the possible benefit of having the two connected, by choice, but without choice Google is simply screwing up one of their actually decent products!
Who need's speling and grammar?