I log into GMail and there\’s a Buzz link in the sidebar that says I have unread messages. Naturally, I click it thinking it\’s some system/welcome-to-buzz message and am presented with a cute bunny picture (duped no less) that someone has posted. Fantastic. Clearly this is just another tool for collecting digital detritus.

This was followed by the realization that not only was I being followed by people but I was following them in return. I have no idea how that happened. Apparently by using Google\’s email service I\’m also a willing participant in their social web experience to the extent that I will auto-follow people once they find me in their contacts. My, how the world has changed in the past couple of years.

After that I yelled at Zonker over email (perhaps I should have \”Buzzed\” him?) about the service for a bit, found the \”off button\” link at the bottom of the page and shut this silly thing down.

I realize, however, I am not the core demographic for this service. I don\’t use Facebook, Twitter, &c. I\’ve never played MafiaWars and I don\’t care if you do or if you are in need of assistance. I\’m sorry if your Grandma died or if your marriage is having trouble or if the Lord is really testing you today but I probably don\’t want to hear about it because you sent a text message from your phone to a website.

And I certainly don\’t want distractions in my email client. My inbox is my todo list. It\’s where I get a lot of work done (though you might not know if you\’ve ever had to wait on a email reply from me…). The last thing I want is some link in my email client begging me to click it because there are six new bunny pictures to check out!

To sum up: Trivial. Annoying. Invasive. Disabled.

But, hey, what I do know? :-)

Me 2 disabled buzz within few minutes of usage. its really distracting.

It was easy to delete the entries I was set up to follow, and almost impossible for me to figure out how to block the unknown people who were following me. The Google forum seems to have this as the #1 complaint.

Your article really sums up what Google Buzz has to offer. That makes it about as useful as Microsoft\’s \’Clippy\’, but vastly more annoying.

I\’m in complete agreement with the overwhelming majority of posters on the Google forums, Buzz is poorly implemented and adds little, if any, value.

I shut it off with the link at the bottom of the mail page.

Check the blogs,tweets about disabling the service.
No One knows how to disable it. infact there is no way out.
You have to keep unfollowing your contacts, click on buzz off or what ever that sounds like at the bottom of mail
Let me Quote from the Help (this probably will show how despirate I was to get rid of it)

No Way Out : Disabling Google Buzz
(Now we have two labels for Spam in gmail, Spam and Buzz)

If Buzz isn\’t for you, you can turn it off it by clicking the turn off buzz link at the bottom of your Gmail (it\’s near the basic HTML link). Please note that this will only remove the Buzz label from your Gmail account.

To completely stop using Google Buzz, you also need to remove your connected sites, block all followers, and delete your Google profile before clicking the turn off buzz link.
You can disable Buzz by clicking the turn off buzz link at the bottom of your Gmail.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=171460

I liked Wave, however, Zonker is right, there are no Waves going on, and you try and get people to use it, very hard. Even those who are tech savvy are having a hard time getting into it, let alone my family and friends.

Nnghh …. !! //disgusted utterance. I find myself unable to articulate what I want to say about this. Wave, which I want, sits idle and Buzz, which I loath, continually pops up with distractions.

Don\’t know how this happened, never double posted before.

Bobby B, Houston Texas

At the time it was written – which was before a lot of people started catching on to the privacy implications – nice things *were being said about Buzz. Things change pretty quickly in a day. :-)

Everything Goofle does has a \”few\” rough edges because they are convinced they must have their hands into everything.
Consequently, instead of doing any one thing completely and getting it right, they kick out a bunch of half-ass garbage that may or not work.
I\’m just not sure whether it started at Mozilla and spread to Goofle or started at Goofle and went the other way.
Of course, it may have originated at Microsoft, come to think of it…

1fastbullet
Montgomery, TX