Google's forced network not very social
by Anick Jesdanun Associated Press Mar. 11, 2010 12:00 AM
NEW YORK - It's been about a month since Buzz arrived with a splash. Positioned as Google's answer to the popularity of Facebook and other social-networking sites, Buzz is a way for circles of friends to connect right on Google's Gmail home page.
However, Buzz comes across as Buzzkill. It's a social-networking party crasher that no one invited, trying to make conversation with everyone, anyone, as other guests look on with suspicion and unease.
On the face of it, the Buzz features are impressive for a first go-around, matching many of the basics offered by the 6-year-old Facebook.
Buzz does offer a few improvements over Facebook. Photos appear larger, and comments on people's updates are in the same size, not subordinate to the original posting.
But these are minor boosts, not enough to overcome a broader complaint I have.
My friends on Buzz are supposedly my closest confidants. I have 17 people following me. Meanwhile, I'm following 46 people. But I've added none of those people to my circle, and only one of those 17 admitted to adding me.
Rather, to streamline the creation of these circles, Google automatically added them based on how often we've e-mailed in the past. But frequently e-mailing someone doesn't necessarily mean I'd want to share party photos with that person.
To Google's credit, the company quickly responded to complaints about these automated circles. Instead, it now offers suggestions that people can accept or reject.
But circles previously created by machines remain in effect. Many friends who are supposedly following me have told me they were similarly perplexed. One wrote me, "I did not add you, Google did. I think this was a social-networking failure."
On Facebook, you must manually add a friend, and the friend must accept your request, before your updates start showing up on each other's pages.
By contrast, you can follow someone on Google Buzz by simply adding that contact, and anyone can follow you with a click or two. But most people I know on Buzz haven't done any of that.
That gets to the other fundamental problem with Buzz. No one I know is using it regularly. Because people hadn't actively joined Buzz or added followers to their circles themselves, they don't have the same interest in it as they do in Facebook.
And many of my friends share these sentiments: There's not enough time for yet another social hub, and my community is already on Facebook , so what's the point of starting fresh?
Google needs to give people a more compelling reason to use Buzz. It needs innovations that stress the human side of social.
