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Feb. 13th, 2010
Google's Buzz Disaster
Feb. 13th, 2010 02:09 pmThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daedala for calling my attention to this Buzz thing. I'd just been ignoring it, as I usually ignore the new Google services that are forever popping up on my gmail splash screen. This thing reeks of Facebook, and has the same slimy feel to it - encouragement to click buttons to try out a cool new feature with only the haziest explanation of what will happen when you do that.
I haven't quite figured out what Buzz is - some social networking crap that is sorta like Facebook and sorta not. The nasty thing about it is that if you decide to try it out, it goes through your address book and DECIDES WHO YOU SHOULD BE CONNECTED WITH based on who you have emailed most often! Then it sets up something called Follower lists and ... I don't really know beyond that. I know I don't want followers and I don't want to be a follower. You would think that if you just did nothing you would not be drawn into this slimy web. Apparently that isn't quite true, or wasn't as of the half-baked rollout. It may be the case now, after some hasty modifications on Google's part.
Check out this page for the latest (still confusing) update from Google: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/millions-of-buzz-users-and-improvements.html
The first thing to note is: there is an "opt-out link" at the bottom of your gmail page (down at the bottom, where you won't see it unless you scroll down). The obscure location doesn't matter much as it turns out, because it doesn't really do anything. You can click "turn off buzz" if you want to, but all it does is hide some of the links that might otherwise clutter up the rest of your page. If you have already created a Buzz profile, it doesn't disable the profile. It doesn't stop people from following you based on that profile.
On the plus side, if you never tried using Buzz you won't have a profile. Technically this doesn't stop other people from trying to "follow" you, but there isn't anything for them to follow. However, in the original rollout some information about you might still appear on the profile pages of people who were automatically assigned to "follow" you based on the fact that you exchanged email with them in the past. Apparently this horrifying "feature" has now been disabled. Anyway, that's what I took from the google blog entry I linked to above.
If you do create a profile, people can start following you at any time. There doesn't seem to be the same type of handshake mechanism that Facebook has, where you have to agree to be somebody's friend. You can block a specific follower if you want to, but only if you notice them. I think this is closer to how Twitter works than Facebook, except that with Twitter you are only sharing one-sentence text messages. This service is apparently designed to let people recreate the over-sharing errors they've been making on Facebook only with less control over who sees the material. Great.
I am appalled by this entire thing. I loathe Facebook and do not want to be automatically enrolled in a Facebook wannabe. And I certainly don't want Google bots plowing through my email contacts. I thought I could sort of trust Google. I mean, not trust with my deepest innermost secrets, but at least trust them with my email contact information. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll go back to a
daedala for calling my attention to this Buzz thing. I'd just been ignoring it, as I usually ignore the new Google services that are forever popping up on my gmail splash screen. This thing reeks of Facebook, and has the same slimy feel to it - encouragement to click buttons to try out a cool new feature with only the haziest explanation of what will happen when you do that.I haven't quite figured out what Buzz is - some social networking crap that is sorta like Facebook and sorta not. The nasty thing about it is that if you decide to try it out, it goes through your address book and DECIDES WHO YOU SHOULD BE CONNECTED WITH based on who you have emailed most often! Then it sets up something called Follower lists and ... I don't really know beyond that. I know I don't want followers and I don't want to be a follower. You would think that if you just did nothing you would not be drawn into this slimy web. Apparently that isn't quite true, or wasn't as of the half-baked rollout. It may be the case now, after some hasty modifications on Google's part.
Check out this page for the latest (still confusing) update from Google: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/millions-of-buzz-users-and-improvements.html
The first thing to note is: there is an "opt-out link" at the bottom of your gmail page (down at the bottom, where you won't see it unless you scroll down). The obscure location doesn't matter much as it turns out, because it doesn't really do anything. You can click "turn off buzz" if you want to, but all it does is hide some of the links that might otherwise clutter up the rest of your page. If you have already created a Buzz profile, it doesn't disable the profile. It doesn't stop people from following you based on that profile.
On the plus side, if you never tried using Buzz you won't have a profile. Technically this doesn't stop other people from trying to "follow" you, but there isn't anything for them to follow. However, in the original rollout some information about you might still appear on the profile pages of people who were automatically assigned to "follow" you based on the fact that you exchanged email with them in the past. Apparently this horrifying "feature" has now been disabled. Anyway, that's what I took from the google blog entry I linked to above.
If you do create a profile, people can start following you at any time. There doesn't seem to be the same type of handshake mechanism that Facebook has, where you have to agree to be somebody's friend. You can block a specific follower if you want to, but only if you notice them. I think this is closer to how Twitter works than Facebook, except that with Twitter you are only sharing one-sentence text messages. This service is apparently designed to let people recreate the over-sharing errors they've been making on Facebook only with less control over who sees the material. Great.
I am appalled by this entire thing. I loathe Facebook and do not want to be automatically enrolled in a Facebook wannabe. And I certainly don't want Google bots plowing through my email contacts. I thought I could sort of trust Google. I mean, not trust with my deepest innermost secrets, but at least trust them with my email contact information. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll go back to a