Google gets stung by Buzz

Friday 19 February 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Tags: Google, Networking, Privacy, Security, Social

When Internet search giant Google unveiled its brand-new social media product, Google Buzz, on 9 February, it obviously had no idea that there could be a sting in its tail.

Google Buzz, which provides a social networking platform to rival Facebook, initially met with a storm of protest from users over privacy problems. Google was reported by BBC News as admitting that testing of Buzz was insufficient and saying that the firm was "very, very sorry". The Mountain View company has been forced to make a series of changes to Google Buzz to address the privacy issues.

In his post on the Official Google Blog on launch day, Todd Jackson (Product Manager, Gmail and Google Buzz) introduced users to the service:

"Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch ¬- it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most."

Introducing Google Buzz

However, this simple solution gave rise to complex problems in the real world. Unless users changed their profile settings, their list of friends could automatically be made public, allowing anyone to see whom they e-mailed most frequently. It doesn't take a genius to work out the possible implications for journalists, businesses or those conducting extra-marital affairs!

Like Facebook, Google Buzz allows users to upload information - including text, photos, videos and links - to share either publicly or privately. The service is integrated with the user's Gmail inbox, so information appears there in real time. Google's objective with Buzz is to limit the 'noise' in social networking by providing a single platform that facilitates the viewing of status updates, tweets and media streams. Users can also connect to Picasa, Flickr Google Reader and Twitter straight from Buzz.

Google has also focused on the use of Google Buzz on mobile devices. Says Todd Jackson, "Mobile devices add an important component to sharing: location. Posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context - the answer to the question 'where were you when you shared this?' can communicate so much. And when viewed in aggregate, the posts about a particular location can paint an extremely rich picture of that place."

Google Buzz for Mobile

If all Gmail users sign up to Buzz, Google could soon have the largest social network after Facebook. The problem is twofold. Firstly, attracting Facebook's 400 million users worldwide away from their favourite social networking site is an uphill battle. Secondly, in the battle for market share, Google may have delivered a fatal sting to Buzz by launching too early.

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