I've been banging on Buzz for the last three weeks and one thing is very clear.. it was released too early. The most obvious missing feature is a Share button which would allow me to share content I find valuable with all my followers. I can't think of a single social network that doesn't have a Share (or RT) feature.
Google's answer to share is @replies (a twitter term)
@replies: Write @ in front of someone's username as a way of directing your buzz at that person (it will automatically go to their inbox). You can only use @replies with people who are in your contacts, and other followers won't be able to see the Gmail username.
This allows me to forward content to specific individuals but not everyone.
These are my suggestions.. And a test of buzz email to posterous (which looks good).
You can find me also find me on Buzz , it's mostly about Buzz issues (for now).
Link to this post:
http://www.google.com/buzz/115067876375080098238/B2KXsKjuibZ/Sharing-Buzz-Options-Buzz-to-my-followers-Im-very Feb 21 Chris Myles: Sharing Buzz Options ( Buzz to my followers ) I'm very surprised Buzz does not come with a native share button out of the box. note: I've attempted to use terms that are tool independent. Share Link This post is a cleanly linked example used for sharing buzz with your followers (see link added via insert link ). The Buzz link should open directly within Buzz so followers could join the conversation (at the source) or add comments to this Buzz for "local discussion". This is similar to friendfeed share but often causes fragmented conversations. The FF disable comments would be used to prevent that but non-FF users (if embedded on blog) had to be trained to click on the via link. This Buzz method is cleaner and will become even clearer once the Buzz titles become more descriptive (yes?). Forward Buzz ( new functionality ) This would be a share button that functioned like @-replies but used the contact groups (and allowed all followers) to forward Buzz and it would not duplicate content (or lead to fragmented conversations). This function would allow you to share/"forward" good content/conversations to selected or all followers (private or public). Additional thoughts This topic originally appeared on DeWitts Creative Commons post (see link). Instead of forwarding a link, the entire Buzz post could be copied here but that could cause attribution issues (via link) and could be difficult when Buzz contains specific user content in addition to the article text (like Reader share with Note). Any solution should consider the following: [1] Allow the option to include all followers (@-replies is too restrictive). We follow people because they share interesting content, Buzz should be considered. I can't @-reply each and every one of my followers. [2] The visual representation, existing usage models and the underlying data model via existing or upcoming standards. [3] The overall appearance in blog post comments (via salmon). Salmon will need controls and options, there is no way I want all this (including @-replies) jumbled on my Blog comments. I don't think the "main stream" user would join the conversation. [4] A method for finding existing conversations via URL in Buzz. In most cases I would rather join an existing conversation than start a new one. friendfeed had a utility call ffcheck which returned links to all the conversations including comment and like counts. Obviously all connected sites could not be covered but share points (Reader, bookmarklet, etc) should have the option to check. Question: Would the share link method (described above) allow comments to flow back to the blog post (via Salmon)? Would comments on this post, flow to DeWitt's post and then onto the blog if his post was actually shared via a connected site? Why not call it rebuzz ? Rebuzz is too much like twitter retweet. Friendfeed, facebook and Google reader all call it share because that's what you are doing.. In fact I think the whole @-reply thing will be confusing to non-twitter users.. yes it can be used to reply but also to send/forward. I can't explain @-reply to my 72 year old dad or 8 year old niece.. but everyone understands sharing. @mention has also been suggested but that doesn't suggest action just reference (like @Chris Myles is an @$#hole) will forward the messge to me instead of simply mentioning me. @-replies also have issues wrt Search http://www.google.com/buzz/115067876375080098238/CmxJQ4oJLEJ/FYI-Dont-use-in-the-Buzz-search-box-Oops-the. Facebook's blog post is on their @ is here http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=109765592130 #buzzissues
Feb 22 Maxim Vasiliev: i agree with need of "share" like in reader - the post is not copied but just hardlinked to followers feeds, with all comments and attributions.i couldn't find "productideas" for buzz, and submitted this into "suggest new ideas" in help page for gmail. a solution to do not "overshare" buzz to dads and moms could be group-sharing, using personal groups of contacts, these already exist in googlecontacts, and thus - in gmail and buzz.
Feb 22 Chris Myles: Maxim, the moderator link for Buzz is here http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=4cd8&t=4cd8.40&q=4cd8.1d71f. Please note that it is unofficial although the Buzz team is monitoring it. I also think the group-sharing method (via private group Forward Buzz_) would allow new users to get comfortable discussing ideas behind closed doors (private) before taking them into the wild. It _might raise the quality of the discussions for everyone!
Feb 22 Maxim Vasiliev: oh. thanks. i missed the moderator stuff. is it announced somewhere?
Feb 22 Chris Myles: @DeWitt Clinton posted the Buzz support links http://www.google.com/buzz/117377434815709898403/KLh9owvdmvy/Q-How-do-I-send-feedback-or-ask-questions-about and Chris Messina added the unofficial link in the comments. In addition a @Google Buzz Team profile was just added on Friday night but they haven't been "out in the wild" commenting on posts so it's really difficult to figure out what is broken vs fixed vs known issues etc. Hopefully the Buzz Team profile will help keep users up-to-date. I have received comments from various Google employees, some are experts .. others are just learning Buzz. I hope you have better luck getting responses in the help forums than I have.
2:15 pm Chris Myles: The Buzz team has released their own moderator version as http://productideas.appspot.com/#16/e=4a51a The problem with the moderator implementation is that nobody can add comments to clarify issues or detail work-arounds.
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