Google Buzz - Nice Idea, Still Needs Work

Like so many others I now I have Google Buzz added to my Gmail account. Huzzah!

It takes a bit of getting used to. Basically I think it has a lot of promise. So here's what I like about it:

• Integrates with Gmail. Something familiar and works well with existing conversations.
• Works really fast and gets a lot of people.
• There seems to be no growth limit.
• Let's me "mute" threads of conversation. This is better than say "unfollowing" someone, rather it let's me "unfollow" a particular discussion that I may not want to see.
• Pretty intuitive overall.

Now the bad things about Buzz:

• It is very browser intensive. Running it in FireFox is bad. Heck even running it in Chrome is bad. Chrome is obviously better, but keep it up for any length of time and it bogs down. I am sure there are browser settings to improve the experience but really need to find those.
• In terms of sharing I was sort of hoping to be able to share Gmail items via Buzz. The only way to share is via a link and that is severely limiting especially if what you want to link does not yet have it's own URL.
• There has got to be better organizational methods than what is currently presented. The filtering in Gmail works for Buzz but it is not really all that great. Being able to create better lists based on filters, better notifications, priorities, etc. Are all what I am used to seeing and having via Seemic, etc. Gmail is good but needs a lot more work.
• Closed system. Unlike Twitter, FriendFeed or even FaceBook, Buzz appears to be a very closed platform. There are very few ways for developers to create better experiences or even different clients to handle the traffic than what is being presented. This may change over time but this is a big hurdle that needs to be overcome. Case in point, many followers of mine in Twitter are not available in Buzz. Same goes for FaceBook. As a result, Buzz while interesting is not anywhere near as useful.

Overall I like the direction of Buzz because it is tackling what I have been looking for from others - integrated social communication. Having email, chat, and social networks woven into a single experience for the user is absolutely the right direction. However, it does pose some significant usage challenges.

Quite frankly I have far greater faith in say Twitter or even FaceBook to create a better user experience in social mechanisms than Google. Why? Google is certainly possessed of brilliant people but they are fundamentally engineers that seem to have long lost touch with the average person about how to design certain aspects. Remember back in 2009 when UI experts like Bowman left Google? One of the criticisms happened to be how Google engineering practices tend to overrule basic human interactions. In my opinion so long as Google is content to "study" people and not really "understand" them enough to help them, Buzz is most likely to remain an interesting tool but necessarily the next big leap forward in social communication. Too bad. I was sort of hoping for more.