Brian Grey Blog

This is a risky post I know — mainly because I’m drafting it at 3:23 am PST.  But also because I haven’t done all of my homework around Google’s new Buzz product, so I’m probably missing the boat on all the great features it possesses that I am missing out on in my first half hour or so playing around with the product.

Cut me some slack.  I decided to dive right in like some old hack user to see how intuitive and down right easy it could be for me to finally have my social network and content all embedded in my all-time favorite Web application:  e-mail.

I know it’s early days here, but the experience I’m looking for (in case anyone at Google is listening or reading) is essentially the following:

• give me the fully functional “follower” options — let me follow anyone in my gmail contacts list, not just the people Buzz seems to be serving up (which appear to be coming from my Twitter account)…the early execution feels limiting (again, this may just be due to the slow roll out plan Google has implemented with Buzz)

• let me have more than a handful of “connected” sites, especially on the blogging front where the WordPress omission is painfully obvious when both blogspot and blogger show up

• in fact, while we’re at it, can’t I just get my Google Reader feeds in Gmail, do “shares” that show up in Buzz and as posts on my blog and that are also published in my Twitter account which then auto updates my Facebook status?

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here.  I mean if Google wants me to park myself inside Gmail for the rest of my adult Web life, the least they can do is make it an enjoyable trailer park while I’m there, right?  Pass me the can of Slim Jim’s will ya!