David Mitchell Smith
I expect that Google was hoping and thinking that Buzz would be a turning point in their social networking success. (On a side note, isn’t it amazing that Google, a “posterchild” company for web 2.0, a concept
which is often associated with social networking, has not yet been successful in it… )
Back to the main issue around a turning point. I’ve long thought that privacy is a potential disaster landmine for Google that could massively change perception of the company should a privacy disaster occur. (Think Toyota and quality…)
The backlash against Google’s poorly thought out rollout of Buzz is staggering. The best example is this NSFW (language and graphic, so don’t click on it if you are at work or easily offended) post. It’s vitriolic but reasonable.
You have to wonder what kind of beta testing Google did with Buzz before rolling it out to everyone virtually overnight. Also interesting is that Buzz is not even labeled beta. From a company that kept Gmail in beta for over 5 years?? Maybe they should have read a post by my colleague Daryl Plummer on Google Stop. 
.
The real turning point may well be in how Google and Facebook are perceived. I for one have always looked at these two companies as being very different. While I knew Google was collecting all kinds of information and using it in ways that made them money, I. perhaps naively, like most Google users, thought they would use some reasonable precautions. As for Facebook on the other hand, I never thought that. I assumed that anything I did on Facebook could be broadcasted to the world whether i wanted it to or not. Did Google not see what backlash Facebook went through over similar kinds of issues?After Buzz, I think Google may have hit that turning point. I for one will think of them more like Facebook than of the Google before Buzz.
What do you think? is this a turning point for Google?
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Nick Gall February 12, 2010 at 5:17 pm
my 2c on Google in the wake of the Google Buzz snafu: http://ow.ly/16TR1
2 uberVU - social comments February 12, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by davidmsmith: new blog post: Is Buzz Google’s turning point? and not in a good way… http://bit.ly/aMLq4P #google #buzz…
3 @udeme February 12, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I read somewhere today that Buzz proves that google gets social, ..and longed for some of what that blogger was smoking.
Where was the visual design team on this? I’ve never seen so much clutter. Heads must roll! Sacrilege to everything Google …and the privacy issue? I mean, what more could prove that Google doesnt get social.
Didnt they see the problems Facebook was having with its ambiguous stance? Twitter doesnt have those issues because their relationship model is open, therefore the issue of privacy resides with the publisher, or blogger, or twitterer (yes) or whatever they call themselves now. In short, they were more honest about the way the internet works – if you dont want it “out there”, dont post it. Plus from the get go your posts and profile are set to “public”
I want to believe that this project had a coordinator, that they actually tested this thing with people (and not algorithms), that the people who built this have actually used some of the social networks they plan to compete with. I really really want to, but they’re not making it easy.
We forgave Wave but really we’re started to mess with the brand here, c’mon.
4 andy hoang February 12, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Absolutely agree with you here. This ill-thought out rollout could be disastrous. What were they thinking? Overnight they turned from a company that was harmlessly collecting your information and allowing you to publish what you wanted on blogger and facebook with relative anonymity to a big nasty datamining corporation who took your data and gave it freely away to the whole world.
Suddenly I became acutely aware of how much onformation googlew had on me. Before this stunt I knew they had my stuff but didn’t really have any conception of how embarrasing it could be if they used it.
And now, after having released my whole private email contact list to the world I realise just how dangerous they can be.
No more the big friendly search company, but instead they have exposed just how much they have found out about you.
I shall be removing as much of my content from Google as I can. This move even makes me support Rupert Murdoch and that I thought was impossible to do!
5 Andreas Edler February 14, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I have avoided to use Google for anything else than Search as much as possible in the past. I feel so alleviated that I have trusted my guts!
6 Jennifer Williams February 15, 2010 at 1:54 am
Thanks for this type of article after a long surfing i got this one. But now i think Google beating everyone when ever Google want to may be next wounded will be sybian.
With Regards
Jennifer Williams
http://www.datarecoverysoftware.com/datarecoverysoftware/data-recovery-fat.html
7 Gladstone February 15, 2010 at 6:31 am
I haven’t seen this much of bashing on Google. Totally agree with your views on Google Buzz.
8 kini February 16, 2010 at 7:03 am
As a result of Google’s interpretation of privacy and “social” the abovementioned NSFW post is no longer available to the public. Sad but true. I am glad I read it before it was closed down. (Seems there’s only little trace left on http://anextragaze.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/fuck-you-google-%C2%AB-fugitivus/)
The author used a gmail.com address for all notifications about activities on her blog – as it contains quite some content leading to very controversial discussions one could easily imagine the effect of Google’s “social” vision, opening up the BUzz to all fequent mail contacts.
Wasn’t Google the “do no evil” company? With Buzz, they did evil. Not only to the crowd out there, but to themselves as well.
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