call this a spin off from the transition thread, a more focussed extract. so, google are hitting us with wave and buzz and chrome. twitter has become an unexpected hit which everyone wants to build tools to plug into, which everyone wants to emulate. and facebook are throwing away your privacy. yahoo are desperately scrabbling to transform - can we do this for you? can we do that for you? "what are you doing now?" - i'm checking my fucking email, can you stop now and just let me do that!?

so. we are being provided with this social cloud, on all the time. its in a tranformative stage - the smart phones which put it in our pocket are spreading, the companies are finding new ways to exploit and expand. and of course, some of that comes down to the familiar idea - how do we target advertising, how do we cash in on people.

anyway. my point. do people think that buzz is going to be the next big thing? is it going to kill twitter? or is it going to be "i'm checking my fucking email, just let me get on with it for fucks sake!"

personally i like the division between tools. we now have browsers with tabs, i am quite capable of having a dozen windows open to do what i need to do. i prefer my email contacts and twitter network are separate. apart from which, what happens when yahoo and gmail get too carried away? they got blocked at work and are no use to anyone. twitter, myspace, facebook, youtube, etc, blocked from many work places. i know some folk can't access things like gmail or yahoo or even hotmail, but, for the moment, i can. so at least for me there is a line there.

i'm curious, what do we think about privacy and social media? i know there are some of us here who are very vocal about setting the bastards on fire and letting it all burn away. but for the rest of us - is privacy a necessary sacrifice to streamline the glory of social media, or is there a firm need for a balancing act?

yes. this is another fuzzy thread. go.

I love Google.. In a rather sad fan girl kind of way. But, like you, I really like the distinction between my services.. I love Gmail, I love Twitter.. but I don't want something that does them both. I'm also not very happy that I click on the "buzz" thingin gmail to find that I already have 18 people following me, without any notification, and am, in fact, already following 18 too! I'm trying to work out how to tell it to bugger off!

Also, on twitter I am Fimb.. Many many people online know me as Fimb (I have *no* idea why I am not fimb here.. it would be much easier!).. But in buzz I am "my real name", and I don't want that. I like my gmail address, I am proud to have one that was obviously snapped up very early on (Yes, I am that shallow!), but, for twitter, flickr (I class flickr as social media too) etc, I want to be Fimb.. Simple.

I'm having issues at work today as my name is going on the trust website as part of our departments page. I'm not happy with that (my name and all my work contact details, along with boss' etc.. not comfy with me), but am accepting it. BUT, we've now been told they are taking a team photograph to put on this page, and I have said *no way*. I am incredibly uncomfortable about that, but have been told I must.
I am in my office, door shut sulking as I told them I would hand my notice in rather than go through with it (obviously, I wouldn't, but I'm pretty sure its not something they can force me to do).

I tried Buzz last night.
I deleted it this morning :
There's a 'turn Buzz off' link at the bottom of the page.
Then you need to go to your public profile, and delete it.

I still have a Wave account, in case I need to use it someday.

It's weird.
It's like Google is trying to catch up witch Facebook and Twitter, who both did something Google has been trying to achieve for a long time. But, for some strange reason, they keep failing.
Has Google become too big?

The thing is that people who never saw the point or use of twitter are finding some use for buzz...I am prepared to turn it off soon as I don't have any need to see the same content a THIRD time when people double up their posts on twitter and facebook AND buzz.

On the other hand, maybe I can just solve that by letting it be a mini-twitter for non-twitter friends. Twitter friends who want to send me an email clearly can do so, but I saw one friend's photo uploads this morning, and we're not twitter friends so I would otherwise have missed them, so there is probably some kind of intermediate friends list use for buzz.

On yet another hand, it is, like wave, very clearly not work, so less useful there. Gmail I can have open on my desk, even echofon twitter; wave and buzz look too "chatty" though.

Sorry, thinking out loud here. I've had it for less than 24 hours and have not yet fully processed it.

I just dragged it down into the "other" folders so I didn't have to look at it's obtrusive icon

I don't care for Buzz either. But then I am not hot for Twitter. Half the time I don't even care what I say, why should others?

Shut up!

Hey!, I even bought your book

I just discovered I don't have a public profile.

Oh well, I turned off Buzz anyway. I'll turn it back on when all the cool kids start talking about it.

quote:

I'll turn it back on when all the cool kids start talking about it.

I won't

*takes sledge hammer to buzz*

ooh. no. i don't like.
makes it go away!

it does seem to go for the assumption that your privacy is a thing to be given away as default. which always riles me up.

glad to see similar reactions. sometimes i feel like a Luddite.

It's not only the privacy problem.

It's the pointlessness of it : I use Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader.
I like keeping them separated.
Buzz turns the whole thing into some hideous uncontrollable blob.

google buzz privacy nightmare
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html

on android it displays pics you haven't uploaded?
and broadcasts your exact location?

quote:

Originally posted by shake:
Hey!

Tee hee. I couldn't resist the punchline. Someone else would have got in there if I hadn't!

BUZZ: not down wid it. Or any aggregators, really. I like to have my various feeds exactly where I want them and I see no need to put them all in the same place. It's another reason why I don't have an iPhone either. I'm perfectly happy using my laptop for everyday info gathering. It has a nice big screen and a fullsize keyboard. Phones are for chats. (And photos, now.) I don't really like texting. Though it is incredibly useful, it's still kinda tedious.

The problem with The Cloud is always going to be: who controls your data? The first email account I ever had was a hotmail account that I opened in (wait for it) 1995. I used it perfectly happily till a period in 2007 for various reasons - away from home, travelling, not near internet etc - I didn't log into it for awhile. When I did log in again: nothing. MSN had erased my account because I hadn't used it for thirty days. Twelve years of email. GONE. Tried to get them to restore it. Backup somewhere? Nope. Gone, sorry.

You see?

you know, it really does strike me just how negative the response to buzz has been. i read a review or two that gushed about it before it popped into my box. but the response in here, on other boards, across twitter, has almost been universal horror. kind of surprised i haven't really seen anyone say they like it. but i guess the privacy issue and the connectivity and the use of existing tools has really been shown.

I maintain a strict policy that I need only three enormous time wasters in my life at any one time.

Facebook

my Cell

the WGB.

That is it. I deleted my myspace for a reason. When FB becomes annoying, useless, or downright stupid (a process I call 'myspacing') I will look for another.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
my Cell

Dude, should've copped a plea.

Buzz launch wasn’t flawed, Google’s intentions are:
http://counternotions.com/2010/02/15/buzzback/

-an article about how google's approach has changed, and how its more reminiscent of microsoft's mistakes of the past than the cutting edge company it likes to think it is.

Please Rob Me.

Dutch website tells the world when you're not home:

quote:

One of Please Rob Me's developers, Boy Van Amstel said the intention of the site was a response to how easily social networkers are happy to give away private information through public posts from the safety of their display screens.

Don't really see much point in Buzz. Doesn't really do anything new for me, or fix a problem, or anything, really....

I already use Digsby for aggregating all my chats and feeds. I understand that some want to keep all the services separate, but not me. I like having them all in one little box I can turn on and off, without having to flip through tabs. I set the little pop-ups to show on my secondary screen so I notice them when they pop, but can still focus on my primary activity.

After something like 15 years of internet use I've concluded 99% of the damn thing is just a time waster.

I could ramble on some more, but won't. Have a bit of a head cold, so most of my thoughts on this issue morph into something else before I can finish typing them up. Perhaps I'll return to this thread when feeling a bit more lucid.

Or maybe I'll go for a walk instead....