Google: We May Offer Buzz Independently From Gmail

Headline here is completely wrong: the article stresses they'll keep it in GMail, they're just going to offer it to non-gmail accounts. This'll be GApps and is unsurprising, to me.

All of this could have been avoided if they simply had a button that asked users if they wanted google to automagically add social contacts from gmail and give users a preview of what that would look like.<p>They should have also clearly indicated in the preview what was private and what was public.<p>BTW, what happened to their beta testing / invite only methodology? Also doesn't google beta test things internally first? If so, I'm sure they would have gotten very similar feedback from their 10,000+ employees.

Once it's gone from gmail, nobody will use it and nobody will care. Massive fail for Google, strike two in the social networking department.

I think Google should remove Buzz from GMail by default. Technically it probably makes no difference. Same privacy risks either way. The bigger issue is perception. I think most people approach GMail as a private space. They are very aware of the private data they keep in GMail. They've been using GMail for users under this assumption of privacy. All the sudden this public information exchange is one click away. If every bit of my information on Facebook was leaked I wouldn't be too upset because I've always approached it as a public space. I have an expectation that nothing on FaceBook is really private. I have an expectation everything in GMail is.

This was a most troubled release from google, almost everything was done wrong, to alienate common non-techy users and privacy advocates. Just check out the Buzz help forum (<a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=3a63236689cf8dbd&#38;hl=en" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=3a6323...</a>), it's pure hatred.<p>However I would still love if they have the guts to make it stay. Out of all attempts at social media (i.e. facebook, ff and twitter) this one looks like the only acceptable solution which does not seem to suck (no ads, no flashy children toys, no annoying "updates" from hardly known people, and no character limit which dumbs down posts from even the brightest authors). If it is removed from gmail, it will sadly die. If it stays, public will learn to live with it.

Please update this headline, it's inaccurate

Google's social skills are like Frankenstein ...