Some health bloggers feel uncomfortable with Google Buzz

@drval: "I'm actually going to stay away from Buzz for a while. I like keeping my email a separate world. Will jump in if it becomes relevant."

ePatientDave: "To me what Buzz means is that Google has permanently shown themselves not qualified to be in health data. Period."

EdBennett: "I'm moving away from all Google apps. it will take time and effort, but this latest gaffe has me worried"

I use Google for most of my online work and I am not planning to change this. However, I do appreciate an alternative point of view.



Comments:

Dean Giustini - Google is throwin' everything at us and I feel buried informationally. I also don't know the point of having Google Wave & Buzz in light of Twitter and all the microblogging aggregators. I never thought it would happen: I've reach info-sat (saturation).

Tim Sturgill - I understand the concern about privacy issue and what occurred with the start of Buzz, but I have some difficulty with the notion that such a wonderful free service (Google products) somehow equates to no personal responsibility. Any privacy "breaches" with the start of Buzz were totally preventable by beforehand looking at and managing your Google profile and reading the instructions that came with the Buzz start. Could Google have done better, sure.

The irony (having had my identity stolen in the hospital I work at and was a patient) -- I'll trust Google with private info, even health info, any day of the week over healthcare entities (without a lot of upfront scrutiny).9:15 pm

Ves Dimov, M.D. - The greatest benefit is that you can actually have a conversation on Buzz, include rich media included and use groups of people to collaborate.

Twitter is an inefficient way of exchanging one-liners. It's probably good for company customer service.

There is a big difference between Buzz and Wave. Buzz is simple micro-blog & network. Google Wave is a powerful collaboration platform in early beta.

Google Wave can replace both Gmail and Google Docs. It is not easy to comprehend for many users though and it is not very intuitive. On the other hand, Google Wave has the functionality but does not have the social network of Buzz and Gmail, hence both services are needed.

The information overload is another topic beyond the scope of this discussion. As I have mentioned, Twitter and Facebook are among the most inefficient ways of information consumption. Google Reader is one of the tools to work with large volumes of info but it is not very "social".

Tim Sturgill - Should have added, any new service (or add on to existing service) should be opt-in not opt-out. So on that score alone I believe Google blew it (but only to the extent you negate any personal responsibility or your persona on the web).

Ves Dimov, M.D. - I agree with you, Tim. Yet, obviously a lot of people feel differently about Google and online privacy in general and their scrutiny is welcome.

Tim Sturgill - Wave goes beyond the web, because of XMPP -- operate independent from the web. A very powerful transport capability is introduced with Wave.