If you don’t know what Google Buzz is go here.

With that out of the way…

So far, I like it. Or I like the idea of it. Some of the functionality isn’t there yet. In fact, for a company that insisted on calling Gmail a beta product for years, I’m surprised they just sent Buzz out into the wild without more testing.

What I like

• I use Gmail constantly. It’s the home page in my browser, almost always open. I have one main account and everything from my other email addresses is forwarded there. I don’t have to add yet another site to keep up with.
• It has what I like best about Facebook and Friendfeed- threaded conversations. I don’t use Friendfeed much anymore, it just never quite fit into my routine. Buzz is like Friendfeed popped itself into my day.
• It integrates Google Reader shared items. I haven’t used the feature much before but I’ll probably hit that share button a little more often now.

What I don’t

• It allows anyone to follow you, with no option to keep your profile private. If you want to use Google Buzz, you have to have a public Google profile. You can block people but it seems a drastic measure, especially if the follower is a perfectly nice friend of a friend. For now I’m only allowing people I know already to follow me, the same way I use Facebook. A number of friends have raised the privacy issue, and it’s a big one.
• You can’t filter the inbound stream. I love my nephew to death but I don’t necessarily want to see his Buzz conversations with his friends. I want to choose who I see. I guess I can unfollow him, but why should I have to? In Facebook I can hide updates while still remaining friends. I’d like to see that integrated.
  Friendfeed handles filtering brilliantly. If I only want to see status updates from someone, and not all their other shared items, I can filter them out. Facebook lets you filter out apps. Buzz- add filters!
• It’s yet more information through Google. If anything every happens to Google- we’re all doomed.

This is just a first day reaction. I’m sure I’ll find more to love, and hate. It’s been funny watching the reactions of friends, many think it’s cool, many absolutely hate it. Most seem at least a little confused. I can already see Buzz replacing Facebook in my daily routine- but that may just because the most recent Facebook update has made it impossible difficult to see updates from the people I really care about.

For now, I’ll give Buzz a shot, and I expect that Google will have some updates along the way. At the end of the day, I don’t think there is such a thing as a single solution for everyone (aside from email, which will never die.)

If you have an account on Facebook, sometime in the last day you were probably faced with a screen that asked you to reset your privacy settings. According to Facebook the reasoning behind this is simplification:

…many users have expressed that the current set of privacy choices are confusing or overwhelming. In response, the Privacy Settings page has been completely redesigned with a goal of making the controls easy, intuitive and accessible.

Based on the reaction I’ve seen so far, simple must mean something entirely different to the team behind Facebook than it does to the rest of us.

When you are presented with the initial privacy screen, you’re given two options: allow “Everyone” to see your content, or retain your old privacy settings. Facebook says they “recommend” that you switch to “Everyone”, but they don’t tell you what that means.

It means that everyone with a Facebook account will see your content. Your profile information, your status updates, your links, your photos… not just friends or friends of friends.

Don’t choose “Everyone” unless that’s what you really want. Instead stick with your old settings.

Ok, done, right? Nope. Go into your Privacy settings and make sure they’re set the way you want them. If you’ve created Friend Lists with different permissions, click on Custom and double check.

There’s another important change that Facebook glosses over. Previously you could hide all your information, but now there are some parts of your profile that are visible to “Everyone” with no option to customize.

• Your image
• Your sex
• Your friends
• Pages you’ve fanned

I’ve already heard from two people who are confronted with privacy issues that relate to this information. One doesn’t want her image public for personal reasons, another is concerned about certain friends on his list seeing each other- people he has good reason to keep apart.

Unfortunately the only work-arounds are of the sledge-hammer variety:

You can remove your image entirely, or change it to something other than your face, which hardly seems reasonable.

You can hide your friends list from your profile by going to your profile page and clicking the little pen (edit icon) in the Friends box on the left and unclicking the “show my friends on my profile” box. Unfortunately this means no one can see your friends list.

You can hide your sex from your profile by going to your profile page > info tab > click “edit information” and uncheck “show my sex in my profile”.

As far as I can tell there’s no way to hide the Pages you’ve fanned. So if you don’t want your employer to know how much you love Lindsay Lohan, your only option is to unfan that page.

A good write up and explanation can be found at Facebook’s New Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

You can also take a look through Facebook’s own Privacy Help Page.

I just noticed that I’m on 101 Twitter lists. Lists are a new feature that let you group people you follow any way you like, publicly or privately. I have a few lists myself: Jersey people, funny people, creative people- and a couple private ones that include the folks I like to follow a little closer than the rest.

What’s cool about being included in lists is that it gives you a little glimpse into how other people see you. I’m on some NJ lists, some WordPress and geek lists, and others that just make me smile. Some of my faves include

• the-good-shit-list
• smartladies
• smartypantses (defined as “The SmartAssii.”)
• respect
• women-that-rock
• mega-helpful
• team-hot-salad-dressing
• boobenvy
• the-awesome-squad
• sunshinepandacakeparty
• makemesmiletoo
• awesomesauce
• ny-mets-fans

Thanks everyone who’s listed me! I need to spend some time making a few more myself- what other groups can I come up with?

This Thursday, September 3, I’ll be joining Eva Abreu to present Intro to Social Media at the Highland Park (NJ) Library. This is the first in a series of sessions Eva has arranged titled Making Connections Using Social Media. More information may be found at Social Media Connections.

If you’re in the area I’d love to meet you! This session is free and a great way to learn how to take those first steps into using social media.

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Great suggestions here. The earlier you understand what you want from your social networks, and set some boundaries, the easier it will be to take advantage of what they offer.

HOW TO: Deal With Social Networking Overload.