An interesting take on the epic failure that has been the Buzz launch, and why it’s much more than just a “my bad” on Google’s part.
Posts tagged buzz
Based on slightly negative feedback Google is already rolling out Buzz updates to address some privacy concerns, but it looks like someone isn’t paying fully attention to the buzz around Buzz.
From the article:
The first time you create a post or comment in Buzz, we ask you to create a limited public profile (at a minimum it’s just your first and last names).
Funny; did not one person at Google stop and think “You know, maybe people won’t want their full name displayed all over the internet.” Crazy idea, I know. What sort of web service lets users use a pseudonym of some kind…?
This Google Buzz support thread is more than a little disturbing in that Michelle (the Google employee participating in the discussion) indicates that using the full names provided by users (and making them public regardless of the users privacy setting prior to enabling Buzz) was fully intentional.
I love you, Google, but this is beyond incompetent. Probably the scariest thing is that using usernames or nicknames—-a much more logical default option—-is hand-waved away as some kind of logical impossibility, because you know, what website ever let users use nicknames…?
This issue and the handling of it are probably the first time, ever, that I’ve started rethinking the use of Google services. I’m keeping Buzz disabled until they address the privacy concerns.
