Buzzing noise - irritating but deliberate?
There seems to be a blog consensus that Google screwed up the launch of Buzz and that even the idea there could be privacy concerns caught them by surprise.
Well, maybe. Certainly they could have done better, and lessened the worst kind of damage.
But I speculate they knew the auto-follow would cause disquiet, and did it anyway. Every previous Google attempt at social networks (Orkut, FriendConnect) had mostly failed to catch on due to network effects. To be useful, you have to be large. Auto-follow gets you the critical mass you require very quickly.
(Myself, I’m waiting for Buzz to be enabled for non-Gmail Google accounts. I have a “public by default” attitude and a Google profile linked to a Reader account and associated with a homepage that exposes tons of contacts information - so auto-follow will suit me very well once they offer a Buzz detached from the Gmail interface.)
