Are You Buzzing Too Much?
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After few days of Buzz, my stream feels like a broken record and at some points I have wanted to mute my own posts (imagine that...).
Bottom line: Total chaos.
The first thing most of you did was to take all of your social accounts (thank god, Google didn't allow Facebook to come to this party just yet), and connect them with Buzz, so that we, the readers/followers/friends, wouldn't possibly miss anything you have to say.
At some point and I guess you've felt it too if you are on buzz and following more than 50 people, it's irritating. You are not the one to blame here. We are used to connecting to our social circle everywhere we go, so it feels natural to treat the Buzz space like Friendfeed, for example. But with a lack of content organization, it is annoying, especially because you've probably already read/seen it elsewhere.
In all honesty, I think there is a simple solution - Google Buzz should treat the noise somewhat like Facebook did - They should allow us to see and choose between 2 streams - one that changes in realtime and shows fresh content (not fresh comments), and one that is at least 24 hours old. Another feature that is a must is the ability to track your own discussions - one that you started or take part in. The last thing that I wish Google will do, is to collapse long posts (please!). With these additional tools, things might looks better (BTW, I still want all the features from my previous post too, of course)
I also have an answer to Scoble's question from earlier:
I don't think Buzz can be Twitter unless it allows people to reshare content in a way so it won't annoy everyone around (not just via other services, but from one user to another). I think the only one that handles this well is Twitter, this is why the real power in distribution is there. And this is why it feels useless to me to bring this content to my Buzz, anyone there is probably following me somewhere else already. Until Google finds a way to make it powerful without losing people, I won't personally offer most of my other social accounts in consideration to my followers's needs.
All and all, I like Buzz, but I need to feel comfortable using it without the fear people would unfollow me. And I sure don't want to unfollow you, my own friends.
I'm sure some of you feel the same.
Image credit - Juanmaketing at Flickr
After few days of Buzz, my stream feels like a broken record and at some points I have wanted to mute my own posts (imagine that...).Bottom line: Total chaos.
The first thing most of you did was to take all of your social accounts (thank god, Google didn't allow Facebook to come to this party just yet), and connect them with Buzz, so that we, the readers/followers/friends, wouldn't possibly miss anything you have to say.
At some point and I guess you've felt it too if you are on buzz and following more than 50 people, it's irritating. You are not the one to blame here. We are used to connecting to our social circle everywhere we go, so it feels natural to treat the Buzz space like Friendfeed, for example. But with a lack of content organization, it is annoying, especially because you've probably already read/seen it elsewhere.
In all honesty, I think there is a simple solution - Google Buzz should treat the noise somewhat like Facebook did - They should allow us to see and choose between 2 streams - one that changes in realtime and shows fresh content (not fresh comments), and one that is at least 24 hours old. Another feature that is a must is the ability to track your own discussions - one that you started or take part in. The last thing that I wish Google will do, is to collapse long posts (please!). With these additional tools, things might looks better (BTW, I still want all the features from my previous post too, of course)
I also have an answer to Scoble's question from earlier:
Should I stop bringing Twitter in here? I hate seeing duplication, but am trying to figure out if it's wanted here or not?I think you should, Scoble (for now) - but I hate that you even need to consider it. I don't think you should stop the conversations from going, I just think you need to filter your own content in a way that would make it more interesting to follow you in both places (Buzz & Twitter).
I don't think Buzz can be Twitter unless it allows people to reshare content in a way so it won't annoy everyone around (not just via other services, but from one user to another). I think the only one that handles this well is Twitter, this is why the real power in distribution is there. And this is why it feels useless to me to bring this content to my Buzz, anyone there is probably following me somewhere else already. Until Google finds a way to make it powerful without losing people, I won't personally offer most of my other social accounts in consideration to my followers's needs.
All and all, I like Buzz, but I need to feel comfortable using it without the fear people would unfollow me. And I sure don't want to unfollow you, my own friends.
I'm sure some of you feel the same.
Image credit - Juanmaketing at Flickr
3 Comments:
I've stopped importing most sites into buzz until Buzz gets more curation features. At the moment I'm having fun playing w/ Buzz search and following the convos when I can find them.
Thanks for the post. The laundry list of desired features is certainly growing. One feature I have not seen surface yet, is the ability to do subject tagging in posts, thus enabling users to be able to segregate, and subsequently search by on subject (or keywords) indexing, ultimately facilitating the individual organization of the threads. I think Google Social (beta) does some sort of indexing though based on your contacts.
Orli: I have blogged about how using auto-sharing across networks is simply adding to the noise, and not creating any value.
http://www.skepticgeek.com/socialweb/googlebuzzreadertwitterfacebook-noise/
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