4 ms·

Oh, goodness. I do tire of the melodramatic pronunciations of Buzz's death less than a week in. Though some of the points the author makes are valid (esp having

Oh, goodness. I do tire of the melodramatic pronunciations of Buzz's death less than a week in. Though some of the points the author makes are valid (esp having the "Email this" link so prominent), to extrapolate so far as to call the entirety of Buzz dead on arrival is ridiculous. As I've already said elsewhere on HN, Buzz has had a horrible rollout that cost Google a serious amount of goodwill, but the product itself has a lot going for it. Sure, there may be problems, but they've already shown that they are willing to fix them. Next to search itself, Gmail is probably their single-largest profit center, so if they take the bold step of integrating Buzz into Gmail, that can only indicate a long-term commitment to making the service work. In short, no, Buzz is not dead already. It's getting off to a less than stellar start, but it's very far from dead.

cabalamat 17y ago
> I do tire of the melodramatic pronunciations of Buzz's death less than a week in. Maybe there's an element of wishful thinking involved? I would love it if Buzz did die, and Google learnt not to do something like it again.
alanh 17y ago
> …melodramatic pronunciations of Buzz's death By "already dead," what I really meant was "Buzz is doomed from a user experience point of view," not "Buzz is already a ghost town." (And as cabalamat guesses, there is probably some wishful thinking involved.)
- cgranade 17y ago
  That makes a lot more sense, but I think that Google will put the money into fixing the problems you point out. I say that not because I personally like Buzz, but because Google does seem dedicated to the Buzz service line, and they aren't stupid. They may do some dumb things at times, but they are not stupid.
  - alanh 17y ago
    I hope you're right. Still, a lot of my complaints would need to be addressed with significant changes to the service (changing how we are notified of replies & mentions, de-coupling Reader & Buzz and perhaps Gmail & Buzz, uncluttering the UI, showing fewer strangers). I can't think of any Google product that was ever fundamentally changed on this scale. Wave would be a good example of a service that could really use a rethinking of the UI (there are at least 4 or 5 ways to dismiss a Wave: Archive, Mute, Delete, Mark as Read, Mark as Spam, for example), but it hasn't gotten it, and I am pessimistic that this will ever happen.

cabalamat 17y ago

> I do tire of the melodramatic pronunciations of Buzz's death less than a week in. Maybe there's an element of wishful thinking involved? I would love it if Buzz did die, and Google learnt not to do something like it again.

alanh 17y ago

> …melodramatic pronunciations of Buzz's death By "already dead," what I really meant was "Buzz is doomed from a user experience point of view," not "Buzz is already a ghost town." (And as cabalamat guesses, there is probably some wishful thinking involved.)

cgranade 17y ago
That makes a lot more sense, but I think that Google will put the money into fixing the problems you point out. I say that not because I personally like Buzz, but because Google does seem dedicated to the Buzz service line, and they aren't stupid. They may do some dumb things at times, but they are not stupid.
- alanh 17y ago
  I hope you're right. Still, a lot of my complaints would need to be addressed with significant changes to the service (changing how we are notified of replies & mentions, de-coupling Reader & Buzz and perhaps Gmail & Buzz, uncluttering the UI, showing fewer strangers). I can't think of any Google product that was ever fundamentally changed on this scale. Wave would be a good example of a service that could really use a rethinking of the UI (there are at least 4 or 5 ways to dismiss a Wave: Archive, Mute, Delete, Mark as Read, Mark as Spam, for example), but it hasn't gotten it, and I am pessimistic that this will ever happen.