Category Archives: Geeking Out

I have been enjoying using Google Buzz the past few weeks (although I wish more people in my network were on Buzz). It has been a great medium for sharing links via Google Reader and then having interesting discussions, sometimes with total strangers, about the links.

But Buzz has been even more useful for quick, asynchronous chatting with friends and family. Gmail is a terrific email program, but it is not so good at threading. When you exchange more than a couple of emails with someone, particularly when the messages are very short, it quickly gets unwieldy. Here’s where Buzz fills the void. The comments feature supports quick back-and-forth conversations that are easy to follow and review later. So far, I have used Buzz to set up book club meetings, figure out where to go for a family dinner and chat with my husband all day long.

But you don’t necessarily want the world to read those chats. By default, what you post on Buzz is public and is recorded on your Google Profile page. Buzz makes it very easy to make any conversation private, but the process is not entirely intuitive. Here’s how you do it.

1. Type your message into Google Buzz.
2. Beneath the message you’ll see a button that says: “Public on the web.” Click it and select “Private.”
3. You’re not done yet. Next to the button is a link that says “Select group.” Click this link.
4. A list of your groups appears, if you have any. This list is taken from your Contacts. Check the group whose members you want to be able to read the Buzz. If the group doesn’t exist, click “Create a new group.” In the window that opens, give the group a name and select the contacts to add. For example, you may want to add a group containing just your spouse. Then click the Done button.
5. Click the Post button.

The message will appear with a little lock symbol to indicate that it is private and visible only to the people in the groups you selected. (If you click the Private link next to the lock, you will see who can read the post.) It also won’t show up on your public Google Profile.

Now when you go to post a Buzz, your last privacy setting will be selected by default. So if you want to post a public message, such as a link, you will have to re-select the “Public on the web” option under the message area.

If you are posting a message for a specific person, it is a good idea to identify that person in the message itself. Buzz will send the message to the person’s Inbox, where they are more likely to see it. Here’s how you do it:

1. In the Buzz message window, type the @ symbol followed by the first few letters of the person’s name.
2. A pop-up box appears showing all matching email addresses from your Gmail contacts. Select the correct email address. The address now appears in the Buzz message.
3. Continue typing the message and click the Post button. The post will contain the person’s name, highlighted and linked, instead of their email address. It will also go to that person’s Gmail Inbox.

You can use this same trick when commenting on a Buzz post as well.

Now the recipient of the message can read the post in their Inbox and reply to it using the comments feature. All of the replies should show up in your Inbox. Just like email, but easier to read and quicker to reply.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Better controls for buzz in your inbox (gmailblog.blogspot.com)
• 5 Awesome Tips To Improve Your Google Buzz Experience (makeuseof.com)
• Protecting Your Privacy on Google Buzz (gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com)