Thoughts on Buzz

So, Google Buzz is out. It stumbled a bit, which it really shouldn’t have. For example, people were shocked to see their list of followers and those they follow displayed for all to see. “It’s a feature!” cried Google. No, it’s not. It’s a feature on Twitter, where users saw it building from the start. On Twitter, it grew into a badge of honour. Google quietly drew aside your shower curtain and bathroom shades, then played shocked when everyone screamed. They’ve been impressively quick to correct this, but they really should have seen that issue before Buzz saw the light of day.

Let’s move on, though. Is Buzz any good?

As an information consumer, it’s probably fairly good. You have a friend who is active on the Internet, or want to follow a celebrity, it’s now a click away. One stop, and you see just about their entire presence on the web.

©google.com

As an information producer, it seems ok as well. You can stop linking your Twitter account to your Facebook, and your Facebook account to Google Reader. You can stop sending Google Reader posts via email. Use whatever information source is convenient, and your followers will see it.

It falls apart a bit, in my opinion, for people who are both consumers and producers. If I create a blog entry, or a Tweet, it shows up in my own Buzz. Why would I want to see my own stuff? Ok, that can probably be turned off easily (I haven’t discovered how). Also, any time I use one of those content producers (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), then whatever I see on there I will see duplicated when I look at Buzz.

If their intent was that you were supposed to do everything through Buzz, then why have it aggregate at all? To give people a reason to use it until it slowly replaces everything else? Now that I type that, I realise that that may be partly the intention.

I suppose you would call the GMail integration the “client”. It’s not great, though. There are a few things that aren’t bad, such as the live updates. They’re not quite live, though. There’s still a refresh button. That adds confusion. Some things are interactive, some are not. The inbox integration is a disaster. Who in their right mind even conceived of that? Any comment on anything by anyone including yourself is sent to your inbox? Who do I punch in the throat? Glad the filter solution didn’t take long to show up!

I see several areas where it adds complexity and confusion. Particularly if you’re not savvy enough to squelch it. When I post a twitter, I don’t expect a reply to show up in my email. Only, it’s not an email any more. You may not notice, but it’s now a Buzz, so your reply is public and added to the live feed.

I’m all for blurring the line. I’m not sure doing that by moving the line around so fast and counter-intuitively that you lose track is the best approach.

For me, it smells a bit of the Wave project group scrambling to get some use out of the code library they must have spent millions building.

Buzz is an excellent name for this. It’s a noise aggregator. I, for one, don’t want to aggregate noise. I’m willing to see how it develops. I hope they smooth it out quickly. I will only tolerate gnats buzzing around my ears for so long before I just take my beer and retreat inside.