My professional opinion on Buzz aside, as a user I find it to be a frustrating experience (image by tifa). Perhaps I’ve become spoiled with other networks, but Buzz strikes me as the Hyundai of social networks. Rather than just complain, I’d like to offer some suggestions. Here are six things I’d like to see changed in Buzz, all of which have been submitted to the Buzz team.
1) The background is killing me. There’s so much white space in Buzz, that I find it hard to read. Google’s patented look yes, but it does not lend itself to a friendly web screen presence… And since there are no real Buzz clients yet, please allow me to inject some customization and color. My old man eyes need it.
2) Can’t say it any better than this: It’s new and clunky. Make Buzz fluid, please.
3) Don’t forward commented posts. A fellow who shall not be named posted eight photos of a young lady’s derriere yesterday. I commented on the post to this effect: “She’s beautiful, yes, but this photoset indicates stalking.” Next thing you know this fellow’s post is in all of my follower’s feeds, and the ladies were not happy about it. I unfollowed said person simply because I cannot afford to anger my user base with someone else’s online behavior.
4) Give users the option to decouple email: Buzz makes Gmail a bacon haven, and that’s not good. I get too much email, and more socnet email is not what I want. Nor do I want notifications in my email desktop. Making people figure out a GMail filter is not cool, either. Generally speaking on Gmail and Buzz together, Boo!
5) Hasten the apps process: I think not having desktop or mobile clients out the gate was a mistake. Did Google strike with an element of surprise? Yes, it did. Does its service suffer for it? Why, yes, it does.
6) Similarly, publish a FAQ. Why do I have to search for all of the ways to integrate Buzz into my social media. Google should be doing everything it can to make the experience easier on users.
What would like to see changed about Buzz?
I would integrate it with Okrut to revitalize Okrut and to give people a more traditional social media experience. This would allow people to chose using it in Gmail (which I love), or using it in Okrut, or both. Also, adding Google Buzz to Okrut would finally make Okrut useful, from my point of view. Oh, and please change the name of Okrut while you’re at it. ;)
Geoff,
How about the ability to bind it to your Google account as opposed to Gmail?
That would have made more sense. However, it was a blessing in disguise for me as Valeria Maltoni discovered you have to delete your profile to disable Buzz.
Best,
Rich
Geoff – how is #3 different from Twitter and Facebook? When I post a comment on Facebook or reply to a tweet on Twitter, all my followers see it. It sounds like I’m missing a key difference in Buzz.
To me the biggest pain is having Buzz in my Inbox, so yeah – it would be nice if users could opt out of the inbox ping.
@John: Perhaps I didn’t say it clearly, but Google autosubscribed these people to the second person’s feed. It should be opt in. Also, on Twitter you need to be following both parties for it to show up, and on Facebook you need to click through to the wall to see the comment.
@Geoff – I think it was I was slow on the uptake. Yeah – I didn’t like the opt-out approach they took overall.
You can fairly easily change the background color in Buzz if you don’t like the White. It will also change the background in Gmail since they’re hooked together. If you go to Settings (in the upper right) and then click on Themes, there are a huge number to choose from.
The point I agree with most is that Google should have been working with vendors like Tweetdeck or Seesmic to instantly have desktop app integration available as the product rolled out.