10 Features Google Buzz is Missing
Since its release this week, I’ve been experimenting with Google Buzz to see how well I could use it for publishing news and infos about articles on GGT. While it is quite nice to play around with at the moment, you will realize immediately that Google Buzz is still missing many things. Right now we are in an early post-release development stage where feedback is gathered in order to refine the product. So here are ten things Google Buzz is still missing to become more user friendly and to better reach some of its potential:
1. Make It Easier to Find People
One of the options I miss most is being able to search for people based on similar interests or having a list of interesting/popular Buzzers whom I could follow to get started on. What’s really important to understand, is that Google Buzz can be used in different ways. It can be used like a private network where you want to buzz with your close contacts only and it can be used like Twitter. Right now the search for people to follow doesn’t really support the latter. A gap that could be bridged by 3rd party apps/services by the way.
2. Different Sorting Options
When you take a look at the features Google Buzz is missing, you see quite clearly that Google wants to put a focus on the conversation that ensues after creating a Buzz rather than the Buzzes itself. While some people might like this functionality (especially if they follow a selected amount of people and keep Buzzes rather private), to me it is incredibly confusing to see the Buzzes on top of my stream which have been commented on recently, since I mostly use Buzz to follow people I don’t actually know and who almost only share news items. Depending on the way you want to use Google Buzz, you need to have different sorting options.
3. Comments Visually Separated from Buzzes
Right now both Buzzes and their comments are pretty much blended into the same white bubble. Visually unappealing and doesn’t make it easy to skip comment sections while “speed reading”.
4. Facebook Integration
It’s not like Google didn’t think about this one themselves. I’m not saying, that this is going to be easy either (Microsoft will make this as difficult as possible) but many people will keep asking for it simply because they don’t feel like updating several social networks at the same time. Maybe third party (FB)-apps could help to bridge the gap, at least to share status messages.
5. Rich 3rd Party Apps
Google Buzz’s developer API is still at the very beginning:
Over the next several months Google Buzz will introduce an API for developers, including full/read write support for posts with the Atom Publishing Protocol, rich activity notification with Activity Streams, delegated authorization with OAuth, federated comments and activities with Salmon, distributed profile and contact information with WebFinger, and much, much more.
Until those things are implemented we’re simply not going to see the full potential of the network yet. Apps are what truly enrich the other networks (e.g. games on Facebook) and even compensate for some lacking features (e.g. professional Twitter clients). Nothing caters better to the various needs users can have than 3rd party app developers who are part of the community and who can work freely with an API.
6. A Dislike Button
No, I’m not going to write down a list of arguments why a dislike button is indeed useful; there’s plenty of that on Facebook. But dislike buttons for comments and Buzzes can replace moderation – think about it.
7. Buzz to Twitter
Anyone who used the Twitter integration probably immediately noticed that Tweets get published on Google Buzz but not the other way around. You don’t need to be very smart to figure that most people are going to keep on using Twitter with the sole difference being that their Tweets get published to both networks at the same time. Until cross publishing works either way, I don’t see a chance that this will change.
8. Changing the Layout of Profile Pages
Profile pages look depressing currently. You can’t really tell them apart either. Options similar to Twitter where you can at least change the background and adapt colors of font and sidebars would be nice.
9. Advanced Comment Threading
Comments on Buzzes are finally threaded now, however currently you still don’t see clearly if someone is replying to the Buzz itself or to a comment left on the Buzz. To me as a reader this distinction is essential because I want to be able to skip through detailed conversation inside the comment section (at a glance) if I want to.
10. Lists
I’m a big fan of lists. Simply because I refuse to have a stream of Buzzes/Tweets wash over me without being able to sort the information based on topics I define myself. Furthermore they are necessary to use social networks for information exchange. I know that this is one of Twitter’s core features and that it took them quite some time to implement it, but sooner or later something to filter and sort Buzzes will have to be implemented. Lists are a good start for that.
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Girl Goes Tech (GGT) is about a 26-year-old, female tech-addict exploring her geeky side and writing about social media, mobile trends and applications.