
The Problem With Google Buzz Is That It Solves Google’s Problem At Your Expense - AndrewWarner
http://mixergy.com/the-problem-with-google-buzz-is-that-it-solves-googles-problem-at-your-expense/
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caryme
To me, possibly the single best thing about Twitter is that it is missable and
ignorable. If ignore my RSS reader for a while and come back, I'm overwhelmed
by the number of unread posts and feel the need to catch up.

At Twitter (and Facebook for that matter) on the other hand, I can just pick
up at the top of the stream. No bold number is telling me "you haven't read
this!" I can simply ignore the tweets I missed, and pick up at the present.

Google adding this bold unread buzz number is already making me feel like I
can get behind. And this right next to my inbox unread email count - something
that I actually do need to keep in check.

I don't need social media adding unread anxiety.

~~~
mustpax
I totally agree. I was really annoyed by the distraction until I discovered
that I could just drag it into the [X More] group under my labels. No more
pesky buzz reminders for me!

~~~
jyu
You can actually remove it completely by going to the bottom of gmail, and
turn Buzz off.

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rauljara
I think one of the reasons Buzz has garnered so much back lash is because it
really feels like this sudden intrusion. The other social sites bring at least
as much noise, but you have to go and sign up for them. Once you are signed up
for them, you have to grow your network over time, at a pace you can control.
With Buzz, all you have to do is click "Okay" (which a lot of people do
without even realizing), and suddenly you are hit with dozens of connections,
and a lot of noise you had no idea you were asking for by clicking "okay". A
lot of people who are annoyed now might have been fine with it if they had
entered into it in a more organic fashion. I think it does promise to be a
really convenient service. But the sheer suddenness and ubiquitousness of it
almost guarantees a backlash.

~~~
Semiapies
I think the "backlash" is just tech-blog noise.

I actually look in Buzz, and I see people using it to talk. They may lose
interest in this venue in a few months or a year, or it may remain viable, but
_they_ aren't raging about it.

~~~
alex_c
Of course, the people who are actually using it aren't the ones raging about
it. That doesn't really prove anything.

~~~
Semiapies
And vice versa. Knee-jerk tech-blog posts are no real barometer of how the
Gmail-using public views Buzz.

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oneplusone
I disabled it specifically for this reason. Don't need more distractions. Then
there is also the whole issue of people being able to see who you are
following. Fine for social sites where I have to add people, but not fine when
it's automatically based off of my private emails.

~~~
sync
You can alternatively hide the Buzz label so it won't distract you unless
you're looking for it. Settings > Labels > Buzz > Hide

~~~
Goronmon
There are also the small links at the very bottom of the page for turning off
Chat and Buzz.

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shalmanese
"If Google cared about its users, it would recognize a major pain point for
us: we have too many messages being flung at our footsteps every day, each
demanding a response."

Sure, if by "us", you mean the 0.1% of people who are tech journalists, A list
bloggers, or other people who populate the noise machine.

It always amuses me whenever I see a screenshot from facebook taken to
demonstrate something and it has something like 300 unread messages and 80
pending friend requests.

The average person does not experience technology the same way that you do
from inside your exclusive bubble.

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jdoliner
Google automatically setting up your followers for you is bound to draw a lot
of ire. Anytime a company takes data which users thought of as private and
make it public users quite rightfully feel violated. However I don't think
that Buzz is just creating more noise. As roc11 pointed out for him, and other
users who get a large number of "check this out" emails, buzz really results
in a decrease in noise. As to the complaint that Google should be
concentrating on solving the data overwhelm problem; this is a really hard
problem, Google would love to solve it (or even make the data only slightly
less overwhelming), and they are certainly putting money into research that
could lead to a solution, but you can't just solve hard problems because you
want. They just take time.

"This post my [sic] seem like the ranting of a mad man." Don't kid yourself
that's exactly what this.

------
bmj
_One day someone will solve the problem of data overwhelm._

Some of us have already solved this, though it is typically done through the
subtraction of technology, not the addition of it.

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roc
Maybe, I dunno, _unfollow_ a few people?

Personally, I'm following people who'd have just sent me an IM or email if not
for Buzz. So all Buzz really does, is compartmentalize the passed-link sorts
of messages my friends and I were sending anyway.

So, in effect, Buzz has taken noise out of my email, my IM and my SMS and puts
it into a box I can deal with on its own priority level.

~~~
jsz0
That's a practical solution but the need to do this supports this article's
basic point. It was in Google's best interest to opt-in all your contacts. For
the user it would have undoubtably been a better experience if they could
start with a clean slate or at least had a list of contacts to check/uncheck
when Buzz was enabled for the first time. Google must have realized the
potential risk of doing this but figured the land grab was worth it. I don't
like that much.

~~~
Goronmon
I think the fact that they are, in a sense, late to the party on this stuff
means they don't want to just take a passive approach to building a community
of Buzz users.

I mean, I for one didn't mind it doing contact stuff for me. Saved me some
time trying to add a bunch of people.

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olefoo
I'd sort of ignored the pre-release buzz on buzz; and then had it shoved in my
face when I went to add an entry to a google calendar. I thought it was
somewhat out of character for google, in that usually they make you ask for
the new thing rather than handing you a bright shiny page saying you've been
upgraded and dropping you into the profile editor.

I was fairly irritated, especially by the fact that a selection of my contacts
was being made public. Most of these I have no problem with, but there are a
few people with whom I am regularly in contact via email who are sensitive
about their privacy. So google caused me to break flow and spend 10 minutes
scrubbing my profile on their schedule, not mine.

After using it for a day or so, I like it. But I'd rather not be confronting
deep issues of personal self-definition before I've finished my coffee in the
morning.

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Tawheed
I knew I could always turn off all the "distractions" and go back to real
work. My e-mail client always represented "real work" -- with Google Buzz
sitting inside of my e-mail client, it becomes nearly impossible for me to
"turn off" my distractions.

~~~
ewjordan
You're a lucky man if your e-mail box is only for "real work." Mine tends to
end up with all sorts of distracting crap inside it, plenty of it from people
that _should_ be working instead of mass e-mailing links to ridiculous Youtube
videos...

Personally, I'll be kind of happy to have a lot of "fun" stuff that previously
would have polluted my e-mail folder show up in the Buzz tab instead, which I
consider, for all intents and purposes, ignorable.

~~~
Tawheed
I've got a TON of filters that "mark as read and archive"

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chime
I stopped using Facebook, Myspace etc. for this same reason. Too much stuff to
keep on top of. Here's what I just did to disable Google buzz:

1\. Scroll down all the way in your gmail 2\. click 'turn off buzz' in Gmail
view section

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raheemm
I hope Eric Schmidt and the rest of Google mgmt reads this. They need to get
back to focusing on their mission and stop trying to do everything in every
space.

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staunch
One problem with Facebook for me is that I ignore it for long periods of time.
I would rather be a bit more responsive there, but I forget to check it and
ignore the emails I get. Putting it in my face like this might actually be a
welcome thing in the end, even if it seems somewhat annoying at first.

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rmorrison
It's also at our expense that Google is adding yet another shiny distraction
so close to an application that so many of us are already too distracted to
empty, our inbox.

At least we can disable Buzz.

