15 Facts About Google Buzz

Google Buzz was a social networking, microblogging and messaging tool that was developed by Google which replaced Google Wave and integrated into their web-based email program, Gmail.

On October 14,2011, Google announced that it would discontinue the service and that the existing content would be available in read-only mode.

Google Buzz enabled users to choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a group of friends each time they posted.

The creation of Buzz was seen by industry analysts as an attempt by Google to compete with social networking websites like Facebook and microblogging services like Twitter.

Google executive Sergey Brin said that by offering social communications, Buzz would help bridge the gap between work and leisure, but the service was strongly criticized when it was introduced for insufficient attention to users' privacy.

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In May 2010, Google revealed APIs for Buzz, expanding it to being a platform as well as a service.

Buzz posts made through Google Maps were public and could be seen by anybody else who was using the software.

Google Buzz was announced on February 9,2010, in a press conference at the company's Mountain View headquarters and launched on the same day, at 11 am PT for the first set of users.

On October 14,2011, Google announced that Google Buzz would be shut down together with the Buzz API "in a few weeks", in order to focus on Google+ instead.

Google Buzz said, "We learned a lot from products like Buzz and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+".

Google Buzz cited low user engagement and software security issues for the shutdown.

One feature in particular that was widely criticized as a severe privacy flaw was that by default Google Buzz publicly disclosed a list of the names of Gmail contacts that the user has most frequently emailed or chatted with.

On February 16,2010, Eva Hibnick, a student at Harvard Law School, filed a class action lawsuit against Google, alleging that Buzz violated several federal laws meant to protect privacy.

The FTC alleged that Google Buzz misrepresented that it was treating personal information from the European Union in accordance with the US-EU Safe Harbor privacy framework.

Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted "there isn't much in Google Buzz that is new or original" and "the end result is a service that shows promise but lacks the requisite killer feature or innovative twist that it will need in order to truly keep people engaged".