Google Buzz: The First Real Facebook Alternative

I signed up to Facebook a few weeks ago, and quickly found myself overwhelmed with needless traffic. The signal to noise ratio was off the charts. Important conversations disappeared from my screen whenever someone got an endless list of people who liked their status. And what’s with this FarmVille? I wanted out almost as soon as I got in. So when Google Buzz came along, I jumped on it. Social networking in my email box? Sign me up!
Google Buzz handles the signal-to-noise ratio problem sensibly: Move a Buzz with lots of conversation to the top of the pile, while others stay at the bottom. Updates appear in real time, so (in general) there’s no need to press the refresh button. No crazy Application updates (FarmVille, I’m looking at you!), much better and faster photo/video sharing, and all attached to a world-class email client. Perfect, right?
Then the Google Buzz privacy firestorm hit.

Initially, Buzz pulled your frequent-email list of contacts and defaulted to a setting where the entire list was posted online. That was great news for stalkers, but not so good for you. If you were a journalist, your sources got outed. And what if you have a crazy ex-girlfriend? Thankfully, Google stepped up very quickly to address people’s concerns, and in less than a week they plugged the holes. This is actually a very good thing. Remember Facebook Beacon, anyone? People need to keep in mind that it took Facebook a month, four times as long, to fix the same type of problem. At least Google is willing to work hard to fix a mistake, unlike Facebook.
That said, Google Buzz still has a ways to go. My Google Profiles page needs to be public, or I can’t use Buzz. But I won’t fill out a bunch of personal information about myself on a public page, and there’s no way at present to make the profile partially public and partially private. So my full profile stays on Facebook.
That doesn’t mean you can’t take Google Buzz for a test drive now, though. The privacy concerns have been fixed, so if you’re interested, sign up for the service. My next set of blog posts will show what needs to be done to make the experience a pleasant one.