Article Lead Image

Buzz killed

Google finally pulls the plug on social failure Buzz and is hoping people head over to Google+.

 

Lauren Rae Orsini

Internet Culture

Posted on Oct 14, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 2:10 am CDT

It just goes to show that buzz can’t be artificially generated.

Today, the Official Google Blog announced that Google Buzz has been scheduled for the chopping block. The company plans to cast it aside in order to focus more on Google+, wrote Bradley Horowitz, Vice President of Product.

“We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+,” wrote Horowitz.

Google Buzz was not the company’s first attempt at a social network, but definitely its biggest failure. The Buzz privacy holes were so gaping that Google publicly apologized for them in February 2010. The platform, which was originally seen as a threat to Facebook, dwindled.

Buzz may be officially gone in a few weeks, but for many net denizens it’s been dead for months. Twitter users did not seem surprised to hear of its loss.

“I believe you would call this the exact opposite of shocking,” wrote @nataliehaack.

“R.I.P. Google Buzz, you privacy violatin’, technical standards lovin’, complicated piece of work!” wrote @marshallk.

“RIP Google Buzz. The company reports they are shutting it down, which will impact tens of people,” quipped @joeschmitt.

Share this article
*First Published: Oct 14, 2011, 9:31 am CDT