It seems my last post created quite a stir. Today I got an email from Google Buzz Communications. It seems that no one at Google Buzz team had considered that the
profile part of the Google Profile was what should show as a default. It took me quite a while, along with a description of how I use my Google Profile (as my online business card) to show it's importance. Finally my words "It's called Google Profile, so shouldn't the Profile show as default? Otherwise it's Marsha Collier's Google Buzz page" did the trick. Google said "they would consider the suggestion."
I don't want to sound paranoid (or maybe I've read too much George Orwell), and I don't want Google to pull the plug on any of the fine services of theirs that I use (like this blog). I would like to reiterate the following:
- You can have a Google Profile without Google Buzz
- You have to disconnect any of the social media sites you have connected to it (via Buzz in Gmail)
- You have to disable Google Buzz in your Gmail (via the Buzz tab in Gmail Settings)
... but since you're not sharing any items, or using Buzz, this is effectively meaningless.
It's sick that you have that kind of pull, Marsha. Dare to dream, eh? :)
ReplyDeleteMarsha: Isn't it possible to just completely disable Buzz and delete your profile...and then quickly re-create your profile? You could re-post your "About Me" content and your links along the right side after first copying and pasting the content to something like a MS Word document (before deleting your Buzz-hijacked profile). It might involve some re-typing or re-formatting at points, but it seems like it wouldn't take that long.
ReplyDeleteChris, I thought about that copying the HTML... but haven't had time to work it through. It *might* work, but in the comments on the original post, some people said they could not repost.
ReplyDeletePhil? Me? Pull? It's just that Google is everywhere. Soon they will know our thoughts before we think them LOL
ReplyDeleteI went through the process of completely disabling Buzz and deleting my profile...and then re-creating my profile from scratch. The good news is that Buzz is now wiped from my Gmail experience and my profile, and my new profile carries the same URL as it did before (so your domain re-direct would work as it always has). However, my new Buzz-less profile still had a huge, garish "Follow Chris" button on it. That wasn't there before Buzz. I really despise it, and can't get rid of it. I pray that Google will allow us to revert to our old profile styles and eventually provide the option to have a totally separate interface to Buzz apart from Gmail and our Google profiles.
ReplyDeleteChris, Thank you for the follow up. I cracked up when you said, "huge, garish "Follow Chris" button." We can only wait and hope
ReplyDelete