New07 Blog Reviews » Google Buzz

Social Media Time Saving Tip

cgseo — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:20:43 +0000

What I am going to share with you is not new, but I am surprised at how many people do not use this time saving source. Ping.fm is a resource that I want everyone to know about. If you aren’t using it then you need to rethink the reason why. If you are using this wonderful tool then maybe I can share with you some more helpful tips to help in your successes. In there own words: “Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap!” To me the best part is that the service is free and you can post from anywhere with their mobile, instant messenger and email apps. They also work along with hundreds of other 3rd party apps to make updating your status simple and fast. Ping.fm was recently acquired by Seesmic making the service much more powerful. You can send an update and it can be submitted instantly to 50+ social networks including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning, WordPress, TypePad, Yammer, Status.net and many more. My favorite part about using this valuable resource is that I can post from my iPhone from anywhere sharing with my friends and family something cool. For example, I recently sent an update to all my friends to over 20 of my social networks right from my phone. The update was sent from the beautiful mountains of Utah stating that I had just finished a Half Marathon. Here is a very short video I created showing how easy it is to sign up and start using Ping.fm today: There is also a trick to update your Google Buzz account via Ping.fm and here are the steps: 1. Of course you must have a Ping.fm account, sign up here – http://ping.fm/ 2. Add Gtalk by clicking “Add Network” at the http://ping.fm/networks/ page 3. Next enter your email address and password associated with your Google buzz account then click submit: 4. And for the last step, you need to add Gtalk as a connected service by logging into your Google Buzz account. See images below for steps: That is it, your Ping.fm posts will now automatically post to your Google Buzz account. Most other social networks are much easier to add as you can see in the video I shared above. There are some things you need to know with using Ping.fm as a social media tool. You need to remember that it is simply a tool that will help save you time. It is not an automated tool that will make you millions or get you more followers necessarily. I see many people abuse the tool to the point that they are not being social anymore with their friends and followers. As we know, Social Media is all about the conversation and being social. If all you are doing is submitting updates and not a part of the discussion then you will loose out on what social media really is. Here are some helpful tips and reminders to save time but still be social: Only use Ping.fm as a status update service and not your only means of connecting to your social networks Post your status updates and make sure you still login to your social network profiles to be a part of the dialogue Don’t overdue it with your submissions, you will loose a lot of friends and followers this way Use other tools to help you in the conversation (e.g. Seesmic , Hootsuite , or Tweetdeck ) In conclusion, Ping.fm is simply a tool for us as marketers and individuals to use to help us save time when conversing and sharing stuff with our friends and followers. This free resource has the ability to help us be more productive if we use it correctly and wisely. Bear in mind that any tool can be abused, so just be careful. Also always remember to have fun. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Social Media Time Saving Continue reading →

Google Integrates Buzz to Gmail for Mobile

cgseo — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:42:00 +0000

As if the noise created by Google Buzz on Gmail for desktop is not enough, Google has just integrated Google Buzz to Gmail for Mobile. So, the next time you access your Gmail account on your iPhone or Android devices using your phone’s browser to access gmail.com, you’d noticed that when you check the “menu” , Buzz is now added as an option. According to Google : With the latest iteration of Gmail for mobile, we’ve worked to integrate buzz with your mobile inbox. Now, you’ll see buzz in your inbox on your phone just like you do in the desktop version of Gmail, complete with the little Google Buzz icon. When you open a buzz post from your inbox, you can perform all the standard functions, such as liking the post or commenting, just as you can from the desktop Gmail inbox. Interestingly, Google did not do the same integration with the Gmail app for Android. I’m pretty sure nobody if not very few Android and iPhone users check their Gmail using their phone’s browser. I use my the Gmail app on my Nexus One and the default email app for iPhone when checking my Gmail account. For the Android Gmail app, Google perhaps is just being cautious so as not to annoy users some more. Or perhaps they are just testing the feature first before integrating it to the Android Gmail app. Hopefully not. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Integrates Buzz to Gmail for Continue reading →

Google Buzz Comments Are Collapsible Now

cgseo — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:07:44 +0000

Finally, Google has addressed one of the Buzz kills we mentioned a long time ago – making buzz posts with tons of comments collapsible. According to Google when there are enough comments on Buzz posts, these may be collapsed based on the following details: 3 or more previous or new comments are collapsed into a group latest previous comment (from before the last visit) was left expanded for more context last two new comments (since last visit) are expanded to give a taste of ongoing conversation that you might find interesting previous and new comments are collapsed together into a single line to save space names of some of the people whose comments are collapsed are displayed to give you a chance to dive into the conversation if you it interesting All in all, these changes limit the space a post takes up in the Google Buzz tab and prevent popular posts which you might find not interesting at all from dominating your Buzz stream. Of course, the ultimate effect would be making Google Buzz a little less noisy. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Buzz Comments Are Collapsible Continue reading →

Post Text and Photos via Google Buzz Widget for Android

cgseo — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:17:06 +0000

Recently, Google updated its Google Buzz app for Android phones by adding a widget facility that lets you post text and photos with a single tap. Google Buzz widget allows you to tag your post with the location or place from which you are posting your buzz. Similar to location-based mobile apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, the Google Buzz widget is a good tool for recommending restaurants and other business establishments to your Google Buzz followers. What’s good about this Android app is that it uploads in the background, hence allowing you to do other things while waiting for your photos to upload. Google Buzz widget is available for all phones running v1.6 and later of the Android OS. You need to get the Google Buzz native app from the Android market and then add it as a widget to your Android phone’s homescreen – that is tap “Menu” while on the home screen and select “Add > Widgets > Google Buzz”. Alternatively, you may now scan the QR codes below to get the download link for Google Buzz for Android. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Post Text and Photos via Google Buzz Widget for Continue reading →

Google Starts Indexing Facebook Pages Updates

cgseo — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:42:39 +0000

Although both Facebook and Google has not yet announced this officially, some folks are reporting that status updates from Facebook pages will start showing up on Google search results today. Of course, this comes hot on the heels of Yahoo’s announcement of their content-sharing deal with Twittter. And so the race to become a real-time search engine is starting to heat up. Google of course was ahead of the game as it incorporated Twitter updates to search results as early as December last year. While recently, it has also started incorporating MySpace status updates. But while Google’s deal with Twitter and MySpace includes status updates of members, the deal with Facebook is limited only to status updates of Facebook pages. Of course this is understandable since Facebook has a much closer ties with Microsoft Bing. And in case you’re not aware Facebook pages are basically accounts used for marketing and advertising purposes of consumer brands so, there’s really not much real-time in this regard since those Facebook pages are rarely updated after all. Makes me wonder right now, as to when Google will incorporate updates coming from Google Buzz to search results. Although I’m not really hoping that they would. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Starts Indexing Facebook Pages Continue reading →

Canadian Privacy Office Questions Google Buzz

cgseo — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:53:08 +0000

As expected from a controversial web service that inflicts privacy invasion, Google Buzz just received a new “friend” in the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner. A spokesperson for the said Canadian government office said that they are now investigating whether Google Buzz is indeed violating or may have violated Canadian privacy laws . Google’s Canada office currently talking with federal and provincial privacy officials to address these concerns and assured everyone of us that they are moving to implement changes as quick as they can. In fact more changes will be announced this week to ensure that Google Buzz is not violating and will not violate privacy laws. “We’ll be making some significant product improvements over the next few days based on user feedback,” Google Canada’s spokeperson Wendy Rozeluk said. In case you’ve been monitoring Canadian internet scene, the same Canadian office recently questioned Facebook’s policies for violating the country’s privacy laws. Facebook was forced to make drastic changes to its policy as a result of the investigation. Another issue which recently made some headlines was when the same office questioned Google Docs for possible violation of privacy laws. Let’s see if Google will finally end all questions raised regarding Buzz’s threat to user privacy and whether its actions would be enough not to merit another investigation, this time none other than the U.S. government. Like This Post? You'll LOVE These Related Tutorials from SEJ : Google Adds Privacy Link to Home Continue reading →

Google Answers Some Buzz Kills that We Buzzed Out

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:02:35 +0000

The Google Buzz folks must have heard or read all the noise about Buzz kills that they are now answering some of these. So Google announced three tweaks that it hopes to address some of the major concerns of the millions of Gmail users who jumped into the buzz hype.

First of these tweaks is about auto-following. So instead of making you automatically follow people in your Gmail contacts, Google will instead give you a chance to select only those you want to follow. But this is true only for first time “buzzers.’

For the rest of us who are using buzz right now and have automatically followed all our Gmail contacts, Google will be back-rolling this feature to give us a second chance to review and unfollow people that we are already following.

Then Google is also cutting the Picasa Web Albums and Google Reader connection to Google Buzz. This is one of the buzz kills I mentioned in my previous post. It’s a good thing that Google is responding to this concern as I don’t want to clutter up my already cluttered Google Reader account with feeds from blogs that I did not subscribe to.

Finally, Google has also added a Buzz tab to Gmail Setting. This means you cannow hide Buzz from Gmail or disable it completely.

So there. Some more tweaks that you want Google to do with Google Buzz?

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Google Answers Some Buzz Kills that We Buzzed Out

Google Quickly Refines GBuzz as Millions Start Buzzing

admin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:47:51 +0000

Much as I don’t want to get excited about this, I’m afraid that my initial impressions of Google Buzz may have been confirmed. According to the Gmail Blog, more than 9 million posts and comments have been created as millions started to jump into the latest social craze two days after it was launched. Looks like Google made a hit with Google Buzz.

The Google folks must be smiling right now as they might have really done something good in Google Buzz. But then, since this is primarily a Gmail add-on, the statistics is not really surprising. Gmail users are automatically signed into Buzz when it was rolled out. It was not an opt-in feature after all.

What Google should probably be taking note of is the fact that the Google Buzz mobile web app was able to generate 200 buzz per minute. Now, that’s quite an achievement.

And to think that we’ve been hearing so many negative feedback about it. In fact, the feedback are so urgent that Google quickly rolled out some refinements to GBuzz.

These refinements include:

More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile
Ability to block anyone who starts following you
More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile

These are of course in direct answer to the most commented negative feature of Google Buzz pertaining to user privacy.

So, what do you think? Is Google Buzz a hit or a miss? Too early to tell? Or you just don’t care at all?

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Google Quickly Refines GBuzz as Millions Start Buzzing