Google Buzzted
Google set the tech press on fire this week with the launch of a new feature called Buzz integrated with its popular web mail service Gmail. It incorporates updates from people you know, just like Twitter and Facebook.
Or so I’ve read. It’s not working for me. Worse – clicking on the Try Buzz link seems to have broken my Gmail/Firefox setup. My various filters and navigation cues – like InBox, Compose Mail – have disappeared.
So why so much buzz about Buzz? The Guardian has a nice roundup of reactions from various well-known tech pontificators. You can imagine the tone first: a mix of oohs and ahs, lists of what’s wrong and what should be added.
Bottom line. Buyer beware. Here are two views:
“Why, Google? Why take a perfectly wonderful e-mail system and pollute it by adding a zillion new things to it? I’m not looking for more clutter in my life. I’m looking for less. At the launch event some Google exec claimed Buzz is a way to “find the signal in the social networking noise,” but to me it looks like Google is just adding to the noise.”
“Google Buzz is brilliant. Like ground-breaking, game-changing brilliant… Facebook is going to see their traffic get cut in half by Google Buzz. This really is game over for Facebook because you know Microsoft and Aol are going to copy Google Buzz as quick as they can.”
Update 1:55 pm Feb. 11, 2010: Now it’s working.
