Palo Alto, CA – David Gillespie’s 2-year relationship with his girlfriend, Jen Farrell, came to an abrupt end today after the heavily anticipated release of Google Buzz. eHarmony spokesman Dr. Neil Clark Warren estimates “Nearly 10% of all relationships, where both parties have Gmail accounts, will be effected by Buzz.” The problem he added is that “Buzz automatically enrolls users into the beta and allows them to view their friends most frequently emailed acquintances.”
Unfortunately, for David, among his 18 most frequently contacted friends was his ex-girlfriend: Daisy. Minutes after logging into Gmail Jen noticed she could see David’s followers (as Buzz uniquely calls them). Minutes after that David received a text from Jen saying “wtf us still talk 2 dat wore daisY!?” “It took me a few minutes to realize ‘wore’ was suppose to be spelled ‘whore’,” David said “and then I realized I was in deep shit”.
The automatic enrollment isn’t the only problem making headlines for Google today. We also learned the largest maker of toys in the world, Hasbro, has filed a lawsuit claiming Google heavily based their Buzz logo on pieces from the popular board game Trival Pursuit:
Google launched Buzz to fill the gaping hole in social media not currently filled by Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr, Delicious, StumbleUpon, YouTube, FriendFeed, Bebo, MySpace, Orkut, Digg, Epinions, Nexopia, XING, Badoo, Skyrock, Friendster and Reddit to name just a few. Buzz will allow users to post comments and share links, something only 19 of the 20 services above currently offer.
In true social media fashion several Facebook groups have already been formed to remove the automatic opt-in feature of Buzz. One such group, founded by a 17yr old U.K. teen, was called If 1,000,000 people join Google will abandonded Buzz. As a prank, once the group reached a million members the teen renamed it to I’m glad an earthquake hit Haiti.
A member of the renamed group, Paul Fortune, was upset about the name change. But not nearly as upset as when his girlfrind broke up with him after discovering he too had been “…keeping his options open” on Gmail.
Not all are unhappy with Google’s new servie. eHarmony web traffic is up 10% and they’ve added a 30th dimension of capatability to ensure their matches do not both have Gmail accounts. In a press release issued this morning by eHarmory, Dr. Neil Clark Warren says “New users can use the promo code ‘BUZZ’ when registering to receive a 20% discount on their first 3 months”.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I miss daisy…
“Buzz will allow users to post comments and share links, something only 19 of the 20 services above currently offer.”
Correct, however shamelessly I am using the service with 3 contacts, because I can’t find other more unique ways to kiss Google’s PR backside.
Great post Jason, I found you in the thesis intro thread, go luck and give’em hell in all your endeavors on the WWW.
That Google Buzz logo looks EXACTLY like the Trivial Pursuit logo. I thought they were the same thing until I did some coke. Now I can see the difference.