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Perhaps the search giant should have called it Google Drama? The controversy over Google’s latest social media product continues.
Our initial review of Google Buzz concluded that it was a worthy effort in theory but that the brand and execution were lacking. With only a week’s worth of hindsight, we can say that it was quite the understatement.
The tech blogs have been buzzing at a fever pitch over the myriad privacy concerns and potential violations. Meanwhile, Google is scrambling to address them amid threats of an FTC investigation. Two of the more recent articles from Michael Arrington and FastCompany capture the essence of the issue and largely support our position.
FastCompany compares Google Buzz to Facebook Beacon. Indeed, somewhere Mark Zuckerberg is ROFLHAO:
The issue is that Google’s coders seem to have put zero thought into the secondary effects of this automated social grouping–the biggest concern of which is that your friends list was exposed for all to see, and that communications which you may have been having with some people in private suddenly became public. There are other issues too, and most recently it’s been revealed that there’s an issue with phishing scams via the Buzz-Twitter link, and a big privacy/security loophole that exposes your geolocation if you Buzz, whether or not you want to reveal this info.
The biggest consumer barrier for geolocation is that most people won’t feel comfortable sharing their location in real time. This much is obvious. But even those who share their mobile locations via Foursquare and Brightkite probably aren’t too keen on publicly sharing their home location. Yet that is what Google Buzz does without adequately informing you about what you’re doing it. In this sense, it’s much worse than Beacon.
Arrington also compares Google Buzz to Beacon and draws the parallel to Blippy, which is a Beacon-like product for sharing purchases that offers complete and fully-informed user control. In a couple words, it’s idiot proof. Arrington’s critique aligns with ours regarding the poor execution:
Google would have been far better off launching Buzz as a standalone application. Make it invite only to start, and every single one of the early adopters would be begging to get it. A couple of weeks later give them an option of adding Buzz to their Gmail flow, and most would probably do it and call Google brilliant for thinking that one up. Then slowly bring other users on board over time, as they hear about it and want in. Fast forward a year from now and tens of millions of people may happily be using Google Buzz in their Gmail.
Google has tremendous resources at its disposal. The company should have acted like an incubator of sorts and treated this new product like its own startup, because it truly has that much potential. As with the Nexus One mobile phone, it could have taken the radical step of promoting it on the Google homepage. The company could have put the consumer at the center and executed accordingly. Instead, it took short cuts and the path of least resistance.
The jury is still out on whether Google Buzz will make it or not. One thing is for certain, though. The ill-conceived launch of Google Buzz will cost the company in reputation value and brand equity. The Google halo has been compromised.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // Feb 19, 2010 at 11:46 am
Great post! Ive been thinking very much the same thing, Google had MORE than enough opportunity to release this thing properly. Ive since turned it off and will only use it once cross-media takes it over efficiently.
2 Solar Global Green // Feb 22, 2010 at 6:12 pm
What’s amazing is that Google normally tests applications like this in house and gains a large amount of feedback before even considering releasing it. Are you telling me that the feedback they received in house was positive? That is the real scary part.
3 Richand Allen // Feb 23, 2010 at 4:58 am
Can google do no wrong? This is what I thought up until recently. With the introduction of google buzz, it seems that google has lost the plot a bit. Perhaps buzz will be a bit better once it has matured a bit? Let’s hope so.
4 Luke - AspiringGent // Mar 3, 2010 at 8:57 pm
My issue wasn’t so much with the security as it was with over-promotion. Some colleagues and I tried using Buzz for collaborating on some technical reports we were writing, but at that point (in beta stage, as most google products are for a long, long time), we found it fairly buggy and didn’t live up to all of the initial claims.
5 Eddie Starr // Mar 3, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Ya know, I really didn’t care about Buzz when it was just an idea, and even now, I still do not care about Google Buzz. With all the interactive content I am using with other providers Google is for me “too late” if I Buzz, I Yahoo Buzz, I have been Yahoo Buzzing since it was in Beta. Google was not able to make “Buzzing” a better experience and therefore that is just one (out of many) services that I have no intention to use anytime in the near future. Sorry Google, Reboot and Try Again
6 Lucy from Free Living Trust Information // Mar 17, 2010 at 12:50 pm
With Google being such an awesome and innovative company, I think they really dropped the ball on this one. There is nothing that makes Google Buzz interesting enough for people to really care to use it.
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