c-raig:

I got three separate updates for this one awful post and its two awful comments. Google Buzz is a decent idea with some pretty serious flaws. Rapid content sharing with a limited network on a service I already use - Great. Assigning the same value to posted content from someone in my network as a comment from someone outside of it - Pretty half-baked.

That said, there’s a MUCH bigger problem: the content you’re creating or sharing is 100% public and accessible by search from anyone - a really terrible feature to sneakily incorporate into an email platform, a service that’s inherently limited and private by design. Not to mention that most people use realfirstname.lastname@gmail.com as their address - do a search for your name and your Buzz content appears.

This also includes your GMail status updates - a big one if you use that to talk to your friends:

If you thought Buzz was a neat idea, use Google Reader to share content until they can get the kinks out.