What Went Wrong with Google Buzz?
From the South by Southwest (SXSW) convention in Austin, Texas this past weekend comes some interesting Google chatter as researcher and general social media expert Danah Boyd explained where Google Buzz went wrong and left its user base scratching its heads. Here’s what she had to say, and what services providers can learn.
GigaOM has the full scoop from Boyd’s keynote, but the general gist is this: by confusing and obfuscating privacy settings, Buzz totally alienated its users by finding the social media equivalent of the “uncanny valley” that keeps people from fully accepting a lifelike CGI human as real. Which is to say, Buzz’s users were never quite sure where their public information began and their private information stopped.
Moreover, Boyd notes that Google made a misstep in making the traditionally-private Gmail experience the launchpad for the very public Buzz experiment. As she notes, the best solution from a coding and development standpoint isn’t always the best solution for real life.
Boyd also took Google and Facebook both to task for indexing, aggregating, and using customer data in ways they never intended – if a user has to opt-out of making their personal information more public than public, they’re endangering the safety and security of their users.
So what can MSPs take from all this? Simple. Everything from Google Apps all the way to Microsoft Outlook 2010 supports or will support some kind of social networking. Just make sure that if you choose to leverage those options, you make sure your end users are comfortable not only with the technology, but with the information they’re throwing out there.
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Matthew…great points on Social Media being tied into everything. As a social media consultant helping MSP’s figure out how to consult with their clients on this spaghetti mess it is important to realize the importance on social media in business. Not just from a technical or even sales/marketing approach, but from a general corporate communications angle. It is great to limit social media and monitor its effectiveness during working hours, but what happens when the employee goes home at night or whips out their iphone during working hours.
Lots of concerns and opportunity with social media…let’s hope Google gets buzz figured out and sets the example for the community.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
Calgary, AB
http://www.ulistic.com
There is no doubt that Google did not properly test Buzz. They used an internal set of Googlers to test it, obviously that set of users will be much more likely to like Buzz in their Gmail than are some random users. I think that while Buzz has been a flop thus far in the Gmail world MSP’s should be prepared for when it is launched for Google Apps. Buzz inside Google Apps will create private real time status updates within organizations. Something that right now is difficult to achieve and has many benefits.
Real time status is something that MSP’s should for one use to connect with current or prospective clients and two know how to implement for their clients looking for a solution.
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