A Sea Of Red

Now that you've had a day to check it out, what do you think?

The privacy concerns have been the first reaction from many of my friends. I expect Google to make adjustments to some default settings if they intend to manage this uproar well.

I'm not all that impressed, even after they fixed the security issues.

I've got my RSS feeds. I've got my Twitter stream. I've got my Facebook updates. With all of that, I've got more than enough information available to me about whoever I'm interested in hearing from (and about). the majority of what I've seen on my Google Buzz is redundant anyway -- by the time I check my email and go through Buzz, I've already seen this stuff on Twitter or Facebook or Google Reader. I doubt I use it much at all.

The only aspect of Buzz that has legs IMHO is the mobile version that leverages GPS. I have been able to communicate with folks who I never would have had a direct connection but who live near me and have similar interests. But I expect there will be other new concepts come out shortly that take advantage of the same features.

Yeah, Google has taken a pounding for the privacy issues but surprisingly Buzz has continued to gain users despite no buzz inside the tech world. It really is surprising.

Sly Fox wrote:The only aspect of Buzz that has legs IMHO is the mobile version that leverages GPS. I have been able to communicate with folks who I never would have had a direct connection but who live near me and have similar interests.

I already do this with Twitter and the client Tweetie (version 2) on my iPhone. Twitter has supported location from the start, even if most apps and users didn't take advantage of it. Since they rolled in full-on geotagging a few months ago, a lot of the apps are making good use of it. The users haven't seemed to discover it quite as well, though. Twitter needs to do a better job of making that functionality visible.

*Disclaimer: This message was posted during LU business hours because I'm currently on vacation.