Google BUZZ should be called Google SPAM

tiger86 0 491 Views

Google, the almighty, non-eco-friendly search engine released , a new type of social network this Tuesday. When I read an article on mashable.com saying that Google claims that there has been 9 million posts and comments since Tuesdays launch, I found it impossible to believe, so I went and did some research.

Google Buzz allows you to connect twitter, Google reader, Youtube, Flickr, Google chat, and Blogspot into your Google Buzz. You're probably thinking "Okay, so I'm able to connect sites into my account, but what does that have to do with this news story?"

Well my friend, at first glance it appears that there isn't a connection whatsoever, but the truth is that they're entirely connected.

Each site that you let Google Buzz connect to is allowed to post into your buzz stream. Google Reader for instance is a good feeding ground for spam, so let's say for that your friend Fred liked some spam and hit the shared button in Google Reader, now that piece of spam is in hisGoogle Buzz stream for all of his friends to see. Now let's say a million people used Google Reader and did the same thing, now we have a million pieces of internet spam being shared across the internet.

I want everyone to be clear on exactly what Google Buzz is and what is not. It has NOT recieved 9 million status updates from breathing human beings in 48 hours. What it IS doing is letting your friends share spam with you in a new way.

I conclude this news story by saying, way to go Google, you've found yet another way for people to share spam with one another!

Dani AI

Generated

Short recap and where the thread missed the follow‑up: Google Buzz was launched inside Gmail and its initial “auto‑follow” and automatic connections to other services produced exactly the exposure and unwanted sharing that warned about. Google acknowledged the rollout mistakes, moved from auto‑follow to an auto‑suggest start‑up flow, made it easier to block followers and to disable Buzz, and stopped auto‑connecting some external services after the outcry. (gmail.googleblog.com)

That fix wasn’t the end of it. Regulators and courts stepped in: the Federal Trade Commission alleged deceptive privacy practices and required Google to implement a comprehensive privacy program with long‑term audits, and a class‑action case produced a settlement that funded privacy education and related cy‑pres payments (no individual cash payouts). Those outcomes show the risk of shipping defaults that change how people’s private data is used. (ftc.gov)

Buzz itself was short‑lived — Google retired the product in late 2011 as the company refocused its social efforts elsewhere — so the service that sparked this thread no longer exists. The Buzz saga is best read now as a concrete example of how design defaults, connected feeds, and product rollout cadence can create real privacy and reputational costs. (en.wikipedia.org)

Practical takeaways (for modern services or any connected account): treat automatic friend/contact suggestions and connected‑site imports as red flags; audit account/app permissions regularly; use separate, low‑privilege accounts for testing integrations; turn on the strictest default privacy settings you can tolerate; and log or block cross‑posted feeds you don’t want appearing in primary inboxes. The Buzz episode shows those steps aren’t just cautious — they’re how users avoid being turned into an accidental distribution channel for spam or sensitive data.

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InsightsDigital 57 Posting Virtuoso

It seems that the premise of Google Buzz is for members to share their comments. My thing is "Do people really care?" I wish they do but what do you think?

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tiger86 16 Posting Pro

I thought my news story made my point clear. I think the whole thing is a new spam system, especially since it exposes peoples email addresses to all of there followers. Wow, a new way of reading spam and cold sending spam. Google sure has achieved a lot in two days. They have been "Fighting the crime of spam" for a few years and in two days they've accomplished on undoing their work. LOL, the irony.

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canadafred 220 SEO Alumni

Ya it's a spam machine alright. It must somehow serve to bolster the bottom line. Google, that overgrown, unsupervised forked tongue.

Don't be evil.

tiger86 commented: Fred, you have a very good insight on Google Buzz. thanks for backing me up +2
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InsightsDigital 57 Posting Virtuoso

Could Buzz be just another vehicle for Google to be able to generate more user content and thus tie it with advertising?

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