Yesterday I received a notice about Google releasing Buzz. So I followed the link to … my Gmail account. Huh? Strike One. After going back to the release notice, I finally found a statement that said something like, “Oh yeah – you might not have it yet.”

Still nothing this morning when I checked it again. Then about 9:30 I went to check my Gmail and there it was (and my Gmail wasn’t). So I started playing with it. I could see my normal gmail ‘friends’ and had the option to add some others. Whoopee. I sent a note to Greg as one of my ‘friends’ to see if he was there. He didn’t have it yet (even though he showed on my network). Strike Two.

Although another friend of mine must have also got their Buzz going and commented on my post/message to Greg. This got me checking. By default anything you post is public. Strike Three. So I called Greg and we further explored Buzz as he had made it in. To make something private to him I had to create a ‘group’ and add his name to it. Like I’m going to do that for everyone or every group. Strike Three.

My first post/comment was “Looks like a dumbed-down Wave.” Just like Wave the message threads become very long, which is good for collaboration. However they don’t collapse, so all I can see is the thread I’m in. Strike Four.

Then I went back to Gmail. For every Buzz ‘comment’ I get an email. Back to Buzz to see how I can turn this off. No Buzz settings option found. Strike Five.

Then I looked for a way to add Buzz as a gadget in iGoogle. There are some Buzz Gadgets. Of course, not Google Buzz. Strike Six.

Ten minutes into Buzz and we have two batters out and no desire to send another to the plate. After chatting with Greg, we can’t see why anyone would switch over from everything else they use for social networking that works and start using this.

Judgment. A definite Social Media Buzzkill.