If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and played around on Google Buzz, you haven’t missed much. I’ll tell you what’s been going on the past few days. It seems like almost all of the buzz is about Buzz. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, however; Google employees have been working around the clock to respond to user feedback with improvements, according to the Official Gmail blog. Many of the improvements relate to online privacy and the auto-follow feature (which is now an auto-suggest feature).
Some buzzers are reposting news articles and other material that comes to them by RSS via Google Reader. The integration among many different Google properties is truly amazing. In addition to Google Reader integration, there’s Google Maps for viewing local buzz, Google Profiles for sharing contact information (you can verify email addresses and even your name, similar to what some high profile people did on Twitter) and a reportedly well-designed app for Android.
There’s plenty of support among tech blogs for Google Buzz. Tech Crunch rolled out a “Buzz This” button and Mashable followed soon thereafter. Some blogs posted DIY instructions for Buzz This buttons. Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, has had some significant interactions with readers. Presently, he is soliciting ideas for Mashable articles.
I haven’t seen much in the way of celebrities or news outlets using or promoting Google Buzz. Ashton Kutcher, where are you? Are you going to challenge CNN in this new forum?
If you have ideas for improving Google Buzz, you can submit them here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=buzz … but let’s hope the Buzz team gets some sleep and enjoys the Olympics like the rest of us.
You might also enjoy:
