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Thursday, February 11, 2010

A service to ALL gmail users. Turning off that brain-cramp thing, "Google Buzz," that they inserted to waste more of my time than simple email wastes.


Like "Chat" those on the Google payroll without really important job functions have now inserted an intercept page before I get the inbox screen, where I have to click to bypass it. Screenshot above. Then I see a button on the regular interface's sidebar for "Google Buzz."

I look at a Buzz screen or two and it seems a time waster. It's a relief of sorts, there appear to be no "buzz jocks" in law enforcement or the intelligence community tracking me, or those listed are not known to me to be that - three people who I know. Those of that ilk can track me without leaving tracks is my guess, so why would they?

Okay, Buzz has had its seconds of evaluation, I don't want it.

But to get rid of it, they in positions of wisdom at Google do not exactly highlight a "disable this feature now" button. You right click the mouse on the little "Buzz icon" they added to the screen, and there's no "Disable" option on the pop-up list.

They make you ferret around to vote "NO".

The secret: The toggle is hidden at the very, very bottom of the regular interface screen. Hidden in the fine print. Where else should you expect, actually?

See, here, a page which has useful information, specifically including a link to here.

If you want the thing, bless you. If not, I have featured the links showing how to configure your Gmail to remove and/or disable the "sweet" (the intercept screen actually says "sweet") new "feature."

So if like me, you want to say, "Bye, bye, Buzz," it's doable.

.............

Hermits of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but those pushing social networking as if it were a benefit.

Now that there's that catchy slogan, we next need an anti-social networking manifesto, (short and simple where a parallel text can be quite long and detailed), one for the rest of us not wanting more time frivolously gone.

_________UPDATE_________
The Google feedback channels are full of people heaping scorn on this latest show of a corporate Google cramdown mentality. They do not send an email saying we have this new thing we think is great, do you care to opt in. Instead, they cramdown and make it a time-consuming, difficult wild goose chase, to chase down how to undo that.

The slogan, "Do no harm," appears to be little but yesterday's marketing hype, unsupported in reality.

Consider a limited sampling of some of the thoughts, this link:

ScottMGS saying: Still no answer on why we can't approve followers. Seems like a stalker's dream.
32 of 33 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

benjamep1967 saying: I have the same problem - No way to block a follower who doesn't have a buzz! That's just great for stalkers. Google, please fix it!
13 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

Pokerface786 saying: Yeah this is RIDICULOUS.. Now all those random people that have ever emailed me in the past and still have me in their contacts list, were given all my information through BUZZ as it shows your FULL NAME and picture.. when i had already blocked those contacts and removed them in the past...

There is no reason they should be following me as I dont have them as my contacts.. I had to create a public profile and edit my information and have turned off BUZZ this is the only temporary fix which has given me a piece of mind. I cannot even delete the public profile now as i'd have to remove my acount... In conclusion BUZZ has been a NIGHTMARE for some people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
18 of 18 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

GreySkye saying: The gaping privacy holes in Buzz are horrific! I had someone whom I'd blocked on all my accounts with whom I'd had some pretty serious and destructive stalking issues with automatically added as a follower on this Buzz account, and he immediately started looking through my information and I have already received unwanted contact from him which is going to mean I need to contact the police and invoke his restraining order ALL because of Google Buzz's intrusive and automatic exposure of all your private information! I have turned off Google Buzz but now I'm extremely nervous about using my gmail account at all because I don't know what may or may not be exposed to other users!

I appreciate Google has this business vision of all of us frolicking and playing together in the internet and creating an open online community, but not everyone wants to have their online activity exposed SO much. I wish there were more secure privacy options that you could set to apply across all of your Buzz account and not have to set individually per update, additionally I wish it had more tools for completely blocking certain users and the rest of the internet from viewing your content, similar to the way Facebook and Twitter has it set up. That would not be copying their model, it would simply be sensible!
35 of 37 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

on p.2 of the thread, kmsinsf saying: Does turning off Buzz stop people from being able to see your information? I am freaking out about this. I feel so violated. I have a serious stalker and first thing Buzz does is let him follow me. I am worried about what information he had/has access to. I hate Buzz!! Do, does turning it off deactivate all of my information from being seen?
8 of 10 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

ScottMGS, again posting, saying: Yes, I know the broken block feature is a bug. I disagree that not having an option to pre-approve followers is *not* a bug. As GreySkye and others pointed out, the internet is not a frolicksome place for many users.

Also, I can't even go back and make my profile private. That's *clearly* a business decision by Google and worrisome.
4 of 4 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

Doc.B saying: Are the Google folks even checking this thread now that it's been "resolved"? How can we make sure they hear our message?
4 of 4 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

seriousmisstep: I am in the same boat as GreySkye--have already had blocked/unwanted people showing up as "following" me. Rather than spending my time working today, I've wasted the past hour trying to figure out how to block Buzz, set it to private, get rid of followers (including students of mine with whom I clearly do not want any intrusions)... Does anyone have any idea how to block this or at least set it to private?

Google, this is grounds for breakup!
8 of 8 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

pokerface786, again: I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to figure it out.. if not more.. and NO LUCK!!!!!!!!!!


I wasted my time, everything was fine without BUZZ atleast don't let someone whom I've blocked and deleted automatically be a follower.. I dont understand that concept.
5 of 5 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

There is one thing we all can and should do - give feedback using Google's official "contact us about Google Buzz" form. The link is here:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=buzz
8 of 8 people found this answer helpful. Did you?


It goes on and on. There is a third page containing for example this pair, (and at this point names blur, so many names upon names after names, all scornful); so just the content.

Question:
Where is the "buzz tab"? This is unclear. I don't see a tab.

I agree with many of the complaints here. I signed up for gmail to have a simpler email product, and now I'm suddenly dumped into a new social network? This is really stupid, annoying, terrible. It feels like a violation of privacy, on the one hand, and means my email will be filled with all kinds of distracting crap I don't need. I don't need a new toy.

What's worse than the product is the fact that I don't seem to have an option about it, and the way it's introduced. No thanks. Turning it off. And I'm pretty damned turned off myself.
5 of 7 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

Answer (really, this complicated): Click on Buzz on the left side of Gmail under Inbox. After that, on the right side of Gmail, at the top you should see your picture (if you have one), followed by your name, something about "connected sites", and then something about followers (all on one line).

Click the last link on that line that refers to "X follower(s)" and a popup will come up.
In the popup, you will see people's pictures and names listed.

If a person's name is a link with an underline and you want to block them, click on their name.
A page with their photo and name will come up. And Below their name it will say "XXX is following you - Block"
Click on Block

If a person's name is not a link and has no underline, you cannot block that person.
2 of 5 people found this answer helpful. Did you?


Universally, people are ticked off. Google's laid a big one this time. I am not suggesting they get flamed, but again, one of the comments quoted above gave this link:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=buzz

Google has a so-called, "Buzz Privacy Policy" page, here. Lots of BS. Good luck with that! What they need is one prominently displayed Gmail single toggle, "Click here to remove all followers in all applications Google publishes. This will assure optimal privacy but will not disable normal email functionality." And besides having a toggle that way, it should be one that works as stated, not just a feel-good button to nowhere.

Anything less than an easy global disable, and making all new "features" opt-in vs having to chase down a way to disable it, is doing harm. These are the same people, remember, who complained about Chinese hackers breaching peoples' privacy.

Does "hypocrisy" now get spelled with a leading "G"?

If you blog, pile on.

These complacent Google people need a massive jolt to the learning curve.

Places where you can pile on: here, here, here, or find another thread.

I could go on and on. I used that above listed reporting link to suggest never again introducing any great new thing as other than Opt-In. And I suggested that everyone at Google involved in the Buzz fiasco should have tattooed on the inside of their eyeballs, "Do no cramdown."

Enough. A big time, major, Google failure.

Steve Ballmer, I am certain, cannot stop laughing.

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
An anonymous comment got attached to an old post, but seems intended to be here:

"Maybe this is me talking nonsense, but it seems like Google isn't a company run strictly by the top and they seem to be doing quite well."

That's not the point, sure it's a Fortune 50 firm that is prospering, and some like social networking.

The point is they introduce new things, some useful to some people, others useful to other people, but it always should be opt-in, and the default of something affecting privacy should be private, with options to open information to wider group access or to fully public status. For instance, your email is directed to specific recipients, or you can do a group mailing, etc. This blog content is fully public. By choice. Not by some newly insinuated "feature" making it public without my fully understanding what's been changed. That's why there was all the complaining, on the Google forums.

Latest Google News search shows the potential and apparent early entry of spammers into Google Buzz; here, here and here.

I dislike spam. I don't know many feeling differently.

After disabling it, and posting for anyone else wanting to avoid it, I move on. Those using Facebook, Twitter, etc., do they need another forum, a late entrant, one latching onto email addresses? It appears that the shoehorning of the Buzz into Gmail was aimed at diverting market share, but it did tick a large number of people off to have it on other than opt-in, etc.

__________FURTHER UPDATE_________
This is not enough. Google should publicly fire a dozen or more people behind this, and then Eric Schmidt should be made to walk barefoot from the Seatac Airport to Redmond and standing barefoot outside the Microsoft campus, hold a press conference saying, "I never thought we'd be as bad as them." That and nothing less would earn forgiveness.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
It is not just a stalker's opportunity it is a window to be more offensively spammed. This link; also, here, here, . It seems a spammer's goldmine, where hours have to be spent to figure out what to undo to become less prone to abuses. This screen shot from Monday Feb. 15 Google News, search word being "buzz" and there's the follow-up link to "all 819 news articles". (click on it to enlarge it and read)



It's semi-groveling, taking it on the chin on your own news aggrecation service and not trying to monkey with the hits to soft-pedal it. That's a step.

Again, however, Schmit should walk barefoot to the Microsoft campus and publicly apologize for "this time being like them."

Remember, Microsoft provided no pop-up blocker nor browser add-on or plug-in to filter advertising such as Adblock Plus. Even Google, seeing how popular such "user tuning" features have proven in Firefox, is featuring a way that's been added to allow users to put third-party extensions into the Chrome browser to make it more specifically useful to specific users.

Even on Microsoft's own net opening page which they were trying to steer users to using instead of any other, it was garbaged up instead of giving the clean equivalent of the clean Google normal and advanced search pages.

Guardian was one site with good content years ago but with one of those repeated changing-image self-promotional advertisements that are hard on the eye when reading neighboring text.

In Firefox you can quell such interferences. I do not know if Microsoft's latest Internet Explorer even now allows add-ons. I only use it to install operating system and Office updates. Beyond that, it's retired.