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I was feeling kinda guilty that I hadn't responded to a mail message in Facebook so I decided to log into the service.  I navigated to the message page and clicked on the message I needed to open and... BLOCKED!

I want to like Google Buzz because it has some very interesting features. Google has created a service that screams potential once the rough edges have been tweaked.  Until they refine it, I'm pretty much staying away from any real investment because my experience has been... well... frustrating (produced a few curses).   Many have noted the issues with privacy that stem from the way Google launched Buzz.  In addition to those issues I have been struggling with some things I would need to see fixed before I can take the service seriously.

1. Buzz has a messed up way of prioritizing posts that leads to the same few people showing up at the top of the stream.   In fact it's the only social tool that basically shows me the same exact information every time I log in.  I can see what Google is trying to do here by putting the hot conversations and posts at the front of the line. Don't get me wrong, I like the posts of James Scoble, Pete Cashmore, and Marshall Kirkpatrick.   For me it's a failure because I want to see whats happening right now! Not the hottest thing that happened two or three days ago.  I also want to see what my less godlike friends are saying!   Yes, I know there is a mute function, however, it doesn't seem to persist between logins.

2. The process for figuring out who is following me is total fail in the mobile app.  Buzz notifies me of people that are follow me in a digest style post that is very useful.  I like to be selective in who I follow back and want to base my choices on good information.  If I click on a persons details in the mobile buzz app I'm told that I should add more information about a follower in my address book? This experience is totally fail.  I want to see their Google profile or some sort of abstract.  With twitter I can see a persons bio in almost any mobile app, I don't have to create it for them through research.

3. The process of figuring out who's following me from buzz within gmail is too much work.  You can call me lazy, however, I have sever allergic reactions to having to click though screens that don't seem necessary.    From the time you get the digest post to the time you arrive at the persons bio in their Google profile you have to click on three different links.   As with the mobile app, can't we see their Google profile bio with one click?

4. It might be me. but Google Reader integration is pretty confusing when it comes to following or unfollowing additions from Buzz.  This is my most nit-picky complaint. If you don't care about google reader you can just skip this one.  It seemed like buzz just automatically added people to my google reader source list at first.  I cannot remember adding them through some option. This caused the list to go from about 20 people to 176.  I get about an extra 300 items every few hours from this increase.  I'm cool with sorting through it and purging some folks (no offense to them).  My first attempt at doing this resulted in me unfollowing them from Google Buzz all together!  At worst the process is broken and needs fixing, at best it's very confusing and needs some tweaks.

Like I said in the beginning - Buzz has some great potential once Google irons these issues out.  Until then you can find me mostly in Twitter.  Oh, and just to hedge all of my bets, here is my profile if you want to follow me on Google buzz: http://www.google.com/profiles/justin.c.houk

If you think I'm wrong in this post about anything,  you agree, or you just want to say hello please leave me a comment.

Related Links

Google and Social: Like Nerds at the Dance – GigaOM http://bit.ly/aKKRCd

Dear Google Buzz: 4 Features You Need to Add Now http://bit.ly/d4u8at

Google Buzz and the Five Principles of Designing For Meaning - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review http://bit.ly/cFxh9M

Stowe Boyd - /message - Google's Anti-Buzz: Too Much Publicy? http://bit.ly/acChkd

Google Listens to Critics and Tweaks Buzz – GigaOM http://bit.ly/cX6X3O

This morning I wrote a short post on the way that tools like tweetdeck bring parts of Social web together. I lamented how Googles new update service would add yet another protocol to work with.  Well according to Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb, Google's new Buzz service could change the entire social updates game because it's relying on open data standards.  This could push Twitter, Facebook and others to open their own services.  Read more on Marshall K.'s post here.