Googley things...

[byslantedlight]

Google Buzz - gargh! How many different "social networks" are we supposed to be able to cope with?!

But on the bright side - in case there's other people as slow as I am to pick up on things - I tried using Google Calendar to remind me about something via my email, and it's just worked beautifully! And since I have googlemail open all the time, it might even turn out to be more useful than my mobile for that sort of thing - hmmn!

Comments

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of Google Buzz and had to "google it!" Seems like there are security problems with a couple of the features that have people up in arms.
Google calendar sounds useful. Actually google does have a few halfway decent offerings - I use their reader to consolidate RSS feeds that I follow, and it works really well.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I've checked out the security complaints - some of them look like they were a wee bit valid, but have been fixed since, others look like they were made by people who don't know how to use the technology they're playing with - or else haven't thought of the implications of it in the first place. For instance - I didn't make my profile "public" to start with, so I shouldn't be turning up on anyone's "Followers" list in the first place... I certainly wouldn't want my email address put out there, if I had chosen to be public, but I gather google's sorted that one out... I'm not too worried about the security angle, to be honest - just the stop opting me in automatically! angle!

Actually that's where Lj gets kudos from me - they seem to have learned that lesson, and either make things Opt In, or else give us plenty of notification of launch so that we can opt out... That's what bugs me about this Buzz thing. Go Lj!

I use various google thingies - maps, and documents, search of course! Much smoother than Yahoo, for example...

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Search, yes; Google is synonymous with Search now. And let's not forget YouTube - best google offering ever.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh I didn't know YouTube was originally googles - I thought it was a thing all of its own! But gads yeah - how much has it changed the world?!

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

Are you aware of the security/privacy issues around Buzz? Bit worrying...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been reading up about them - I actually don't think they're that worrying, and it sounds like they've fixed the ones that were (displaying email addresses). But alot of them seem to have been made by people who didn't think about the implications of their technology (not Buzz, but having a public profile, or using their iphone's location thingie, for example). I didn't set my profile to "public" in the first place, so apparently I shouldn't show up as anyone's "Follower", for example. (It's not a sandal, it's a shoe! *g*)

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, it looks like it's only the people who are big on filling in forms who might have problems. My "real" profile only had my name on (which was mostly in my email address anyway) and I haven't actually checked the epistrophia one.

The annoying thing is that it set me up to follow people I barely know. Not that I'm "Buzzing" anyway (yet?) but I have no interest in the Buzzes (if that's the word) of someone I've never met but have emailed twice in a professional capacity...

Now I've read in more detail about the issues with Buzz, I think that they're not the type of issues that would affect me - or most of the people I know. I'm too cautious. Or lazy...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I hardly fill in anything online - I'm a real wimp about it actually! Know what you mean about being given people you don't necessarily know though - bizarrely random selection - a la computers, not people I guess...

T'interweb is so odd - on the one hand, I wouldn't have met or made such fab friends without it, so it's definitely got potential to bring people together; on the other hand it can go so spectacularly wrong when there's no personal input into things that it's scary... *g*

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

T'interweb is so odd - on the one hand, I wouldn't have met or made such fab friends without it, so it's definitely got potential to bring people together

So true... D'you wanna be in my PhD? *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Heee! Sure! I'd offer to let you be in mine, but unless you're really old and have been in both the Royal Navy and the Bering Sea... *g*

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

urgh ... Yahoo have suddenly started something similiar and keep telling me loudly who I can catch up with and who can catch up with me ... I shout GO AWAY a lot but it doesn't seem to help :)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, I had that at Yahoo too - sod off Yahoo! I hardly ever use that email to start with - I haven't checked it for years, it was just always so spammy... Then hotmail started doing stoopid things, so I kicked that into touch... now Google... I wish they'd concentrate on their strengths, instead of branching out to other stoopid things. Mind you, that's probably what someone said to Google about Gmail, and I like that alot, so... hey ho!

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

I love Google to bits, but there are days I could beat them round the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper.

Buzz is a right pain - I've turned it off completely, but I still show up as a follower on our business account. Grump.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Do you need your google profile to be public? Apparently if you don't have a public profile, then you don't show up as a follower...

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Apparently if you don't have a public profile, then you don't show up as a follower...

I'm glad that's how you took it too, because that's what I thought - but I have no profile, public or otherwise, but I'm still showing up as a follower... odd!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, maybe that rule went up after they did their big ooops and changed various things... It does also say that you get added as a follower just from your email info or summat, as soon as you visit Buzz, which is a bit dubious... I can't tell if anyone thinks I'm following them though - no one's said, at least!

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! I'm not too worried - whatever foolishness Google have committed, I'm sure they'll un-commit it pretty quickly. I just hope I don't get linked to all the crappy spam mail we get through the business account.

At some point, when I have the strength *g*, I must go look at what Yahoo are up to too. Ayeee!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, Yahoo did the same thing, and I totally ignored it, because I do ignore that email account these days... It really shouldn't be there any more...

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

LOL - that's what I was afraid of. ::pulls blankie over head::

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm circling this whole google buzz thing very warily - particularly with regard to all this 'automatic' linking up it likes to do. Gawd, I can barely find the time for LJ, nevermind any other form of social networking.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh I know - there's a reason I don't have a Facebook account, or MySpace or any one of those weird link-me-up-with-other-people's-networks things... Because I don't want to be linked up! Whoever thought that we all wanted to be best mates again with people we've naturally moved away from in the past? Ack! I have no idea how anyone has the time for all that stuff - I don't have to answer to anyone but me, and I still find it hard to keep up with lj and email!