Google Buzz Blunder Reveals White House Deputy CTO’s Closest Contacts
When Google launched Buzz, the service immediately became a lightning rod for criticism from privacy advocates. Many people ended up having their list of most frequent Gmail contacts exposed to the entire Web. One of those people included Andrew McLaughlin, the Deputy White House CTO.
This would, of course, be of little concern to anyone, except that McLaughlin's list of most frequently e-mailed contacts included several senior members of the Obama administration, including CTO Aneesh Chopra, and several former colleagues still employed at Google, including lobbyists and lawyers for the company.
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Google Buzz Blunder Reveals White House Deputy CTO's Closest Contacts originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
I Might Actually Use Google Buzz With This Android Widget [Google Buzz]
Part of the problem with web apps is that they're not as immediately accessible as something that's right there on your phone, and with a service like Buzz, if you can't update your status nearly instantly, it's not gonna happen. Hence, Google's new Buzz widget for Android (1.6 and above) makes a hell of a lot of sense, and might actually get me back to using Buzz, at least on mobile. Uploading in the background, also smart. [Google Mobile] More
Facebook Ups the Stalker Quotient, Adding Location-Based Updates
Facebook is taking a break from the constant, user-infuriating redesigns to add an honest-to-goodness new feature -- location updates (which will probably be user-infuriating, anyway). Location awareness is all the rage for social networks as GPS has become a standard feature on most smartphones. Twitter, Google Buzz, Google Latitude, and Foursquare have all tightly interwoven these features into their respective services, and Facebook doesn't want to get left in the dust.
According to the New York Times, Facebook is set to unveil location-based updates at next month's F8, the Facebook developer conference. Those with keen eyes have known this was coming for quite some time. In November, Facebook updated its privacy policy to include the following statement: "When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post."
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Filed under: Web, Social Networking
Facebook Ups the Stalker Quotient, Adding Location-Based Updates originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Facebook Leapfrogs Yahoo! to Become Second Most Visited Site in U.S.
It was only a matter of time, really. After ceding its traffic throne to Google two years ago, Yahoo! has recently been knocked down yet another notch. As Mashable reports, Facebook has shot past the search engine to claim the title of second-most visited site in the US. According to new data released from Compete.com, 133.62 million people visited Facebook in January, compared to the 132 million who went to Yahoo!. Facebook had been gradually narrowing the gap for some time, but last month marked the first time that it actually overtook the once-proud portal.
Although Facebook still trails the Google juggernaut by a good 14 million monthly visitors, Compete's analysis shows that when it comes to actual time spent on a given site, Facebook far outpaces the competition. Last month, a whopping 11.6-percent of all online time was spent on Facebook, compared with just 4.25-percent on Yahoo, and 4.1-percent on Google. This large a discrepancy really isn't surprising, since Facebook is, for the most part, a destination Web site, and since both Google and Yahoo! primarily serve as vehicles to other sites. Those statistics have significance with advertisers, though, many of which are more interested in sustained consumer attention, rather than sheer volume.
Continue reading Facebook Leapfrogs Yahoo! to Become Second Most Visited Site in U.S.
Filed under: Web, Social Networking
Facebook Leapfrogs Yahoo! to Become Second Most Visited Site in U.S. originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google Continues Damage Control With More Buzz Security Updates [Google]
Though the dust has hardly started to settle after the privacy shitstorm that immediately followed the launch of Google Buzz—Google claiming it was going to untangle Buzz from Gmail and then denying that it had any such intentions didn't help matters—the Don't Be Evildoers have in fact made some tweaks to the system. Here's what's changed so far:
As of this morning, private e-mail addresses that were left out there naked for all to see in @replies are now covered up by asterisks.
Starting this week, Google will switch its auto-follow function to a suggestion-based system.
Those fixes are a good start, but at this point it's possible that Buzz's bad vibes are so pervasive that people won't be able to forgive and forget. At least not until Facebook's next privacy blunder. [TechCrunch and Business Insider]
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Google Continues Damage Control With More Buzz Security Updates [Google]
Google Buzz Turns Less Creepy After Some Improvements [Google]
It feels like all of the nine million Google Buzz posts and comments flooded your inbox this week. And as if that wasn't enough, suddenly that creepy ex started "following" you. Google has a fix for one of those issues.
As a result of user feedback, Google has made these little changes to turn Buzz into something slightly less creepy without having to resort to elaborate workarounds:
- More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile
- Ability to block anyone who starts following you
- More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile
Now if only they could make the whole thing less annoying. [Gmail Blog]
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Google Buzz Turns Less Creepy After Some Improvements [Google]
Google Buzz Ad Parody…This IS a Parody, Right? [Buzz]
The best parodies start with a laugh before leaving us with the hollowness of their truth. Sorry, Google Buzz. Sorry, under-lived life. Sorry, sweet butterfly.
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Google Buzz Ad Parody...This IS a Parody, Right? [Buzz]
Google Maps 4.0 with Buzz support now available in Android Market
Looks like Android's getting in on the new Google Buzz party in more ways than one today -- in addition to support in the browser, Maps 4.0 is now in the Android Market and it's all Buzz-ed up and ready to go. We've heard from both Droid and G1 owners that it works on their devices, so we're guessing every other Android set out there running 1.6 or higher will work as well -- let us know if you find anything else cool, won't you? Same goes for you S60 and WinMo kids out there.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Google Maps 4.0 with Buzz support now available in Android Market originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google Launches Buzz, Targets Twitter and Facebook
Google just announced Google Buzz, a new system for sharing updates, shared info, and media both privately and publicly. Buzz, an online social system similar to Facebook and Twitter, seems to be fully integrated into many of Google's services; you'll be able to access it via Gmail, Google's redesigned mobile homepage, a new dedicated Buzz app, and an updated version of the Google Maps app.
Although Gmail integration seems to be the core of the product, Buzz distinguishes itself from Twitter and Facebook with its strong focus on location. All of these updated Google mobile apps will offer ways to share your media and location via GPS, a capability that, Google claims, will cut through the clutter so prevalent on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Gallery: Google Buzz
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Filed under: Google
Google Launches Buzz, Targets Twitter and Facebook originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.