Google, the internet searching giant, is apparently learning fast. Following criticism that its new social networking service, Buzz, is intruding into people’s privacy, it has introduced a set of changes.
The biggest change is about the automatic follow system. Instead of automatically following the people you interact with most on Gmail, Google now offers you a choice: it presents a list of friends it thinks you’d like to follow, but gives you a chance to deselect them before you start using the service.
The automatic following system was criticized because you might not always want everyone to know who you’d been community with.
Google’s post says that existing Buzz users will be shown a new version of friend selection screen in the next few weeks to confirm that they’re comfortable with everyone they’re following.
Buzz is also going to stop automatically connecting Google Reader and Picasa albums to Buzz accounts, though those options will still be available. Google has added a Buzz section to Gmail’s Settings.
Google introduced Buzz as a social networking site last week to compete with such established players like Facebook and Twitter. Whether it succeeds in its efforts or not only time will tell.
But if all goes well there is nothing to suggest Buzz cannot rival FB and Twitter. The service probably will have to evolve further and one can hope that it happens in the coming weeks.
What is positive is that Google has immediately responded to complaints and criticisms and acted upon them. It is also an indication that millions of people are already using Buzz. This entire buzz about Buzz can only be good for a new service because no publicity is bad publicity!
ends