Google Buzz on Ulitzer

Introduced last week Google's Facebook / Twitter-like Buzz social networking widgetry, untested outside the company and put in Gmail as a default, immediately raised a privacy hullabaloo over the idea that a list of the people Gmail users communicated with the most would be automatically shared with a Google-created network of their friends and who knows who else.

Silly Google. It must have no secret lovers, abusive ex-husbands or politically incorrect friends best not known to each other or Big Brother.

So far the company's apologized at least once, changed the thing twice, set up a "war room" to monitor reactions and contemplate further changes like creating a standalone Buzz, not integrated with Gmail, besides the one tied to Gmail.

Meanwhile, CEO Eric Schmidt was denying from the mobile show in Spain that anybody's personal information was disclosed, putting the upset down to "confusion." Right, Eric.

Buzz's auto-follow was turned off over the weekend and Buzz can now be hidden from Gmail. And it won't automatically connect public Picasa albums and items shared on Google Reader.

It's not enough to suit the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) which filed a formal complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission.

Outraged that Gmail users were automatically signed up for Buzz without so much as a may I, EPIC accused Google of violating federal consumer protection law and suggested it may have broken wiretap laws. It wants the widgetry changed so users have to actively opt-in and to cease using e-mail address books for social networking period.

It's even mention the word injunction.

It wants an FTC investigation Google and cloud computing, something it asked the agency for a year ago.

Google's push to imitate Facebook is understandable. According to Compete, the web analytics house, Facebook has passed Google as the top source of traffic to major portals like Yahoo, MSN and AOL. It's referrals, ya see.

See here.