Roni Reviews: Google Buzz (AKA “Don’t use Google Buzz”)

“Socially awkward networking” is right.

Google Buzz is highly flawed. I’m regretting trying it.

I suggest you don’t.

My take: It adds nothing, offers little to no ability to change settings and sends you notifications of responses in the same manner as it sends e-mail notifications.

All-in-all, I haven’t gained one good thing.

Use at your own peril.

You’re better off just joining Twitter or writing on people’s Facebook walls.  Maybe they’ll improve it, but I would stay away until you get actual recommendations from sources you trust, as opposed to just falling for the ‘buzz’.

More details and another opinion?

Check out Molly Wood’s article, “Google Buzz: privacy nightmare”, which goes more into how Google Buzz automatically has you follow people you might have no interest in following, as well as how it posted pictures from her Android phone that she never uploaded.  Scary.

Update: While Google has made some changes to Buzz, I still cannot give it a good faith endorsement as it remains a weaker version of Twitter and Facebook walls. (Thanks to Alok for the link.)