Why doesn't Google adopt OpenMicroBlogging for Buzz? At the same time, I like the idea of posting long posts into my stream. Buzz should look at bloggers as well as micro-bloggers as potential users. The opportunity to create a news gathering network exists.
http://mashablemirror.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-is-st...
However, they contacted Google to confirm and were told: "No, we’re not planning to remove Buzz from Gmail. Among some of the features we’re considering is building a standalone Buzz experience in addition to the one in Gmail, but I can’t confirm anything right now."
The lack of consistency suggests that Google is having a hard time deciding how to handle this but knew they had to address it quickly. I hope they back down and fix the privacy issues, but I'm not sure they would think Buzz will be worth their bother unless they can convince people to give up the expectation of privacy. Meanwhile, I've voted with my mouse by following these instructions:
They should have also clearly indicated in the preview what was private and what was public.
BTW, what happened to their beta testing / invite only methodology? Also doesn't google beta test things internally first? If so, I'm sure they would have gotten very similar feedback from their 10,000+ employees.
However I would still love if they have the guts to make it stay. Out of all attempts at social media (i.e. facebook, ff and twitter) this one looks like the only acceptable solution which does not seem to suck (no ads, no flashy children toys, no annoying "updates" from hardly known people, and no character limit which dumbs down posts from even the brightest authors). If it is removed from gmail, it will sadly die. If it stays, public will learn to live with it.
