All Buzz-ed off with Google

It's not often I feel the need to comment on what's going on with social media, search engines, or anything similar. I like to write and post about travel and where people can vacation. Social networking, and social media, punditry tends to bore me.

Google, however, managed to break my ennui about this and got on my goat in a big way with Google Buzz. Buzz, for those who didn't yet notice, is the new social networking tool that Google automatically enrolled all Google Gmail users into. Predictably, that alone got some people riled up.

Much much worse than just cheezing off some users, Google also managed to expose their users private connections to all their other connections. For example, if you've conversed with a head hunter a lot lately, worked on some business development deal, or conducted an affair online, those contacts could have been shown to all your other frequent contacts. Including your employer and your spouse...! Of course, celebrities got caught up in this as well...

Though the prize winning mess caused is probably the woman whose abusive ex-husband may have found her online due to this privacy breach.

And, how long will it take before people will end up being robbed because of Google Buzz? After all, it's already happening due to Facebook and MySpace.

Update: Predictably, Google is now being sued over this debacle.

So, after this, Google has been back tracking furiously for the last week or so. And added functionality to opt out of Google Buzz. Which I promptly used. Google, here's a quick little message to you:

Ask me first! Or 'Buzz Off'!

What do you think? Is Google Buzz a hit or a miss?

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