Search giant Google Inc. will be shutting down its social networking site Buzz, according to an announcement last Friday.
Google product Vice President Bradley Horowitz said, “In a few weeks we'll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+,” in a company blog post. Google+ is the company’s newest social networking endeavor.
The 19-month-old product was an attempt by Google to enter the social network market to compete with strong players such as the popular Facebook and Twitter. However, due to numerous privacy concerns, subsequent complaints to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and an $8.5 million sum to settle a class action privacy lawsuit, Google announced the end of the venture.
Horowitz had to admit that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company had to “recently decided to shut down some products, and turn others into features of existing products.”
A critical issue that surfaced was the technique adopted by Buzz to automatically share contact information from Google’s email service Gmail without the consent of the owner of the account. This compromise raised alarm bells regarding the transparency of the product’s operations and user privacy.
Google had to agree to roll out a detailed privacy program and be scrutinized by privacy audits every two years for the next two decades, according to the FTC, as part of the settlement.
There is already an alternative to the fated Buzz, with the launch of Google+ in June. It has been available for public use since Sept. 20.
Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page said during the earnings conference call last Thursday, “People are flocking to Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started,” he said, adding that billions of digital photos had already been shared at Google+.
In July, there were already 10 million users who had registered for Google+’s “limited” trial phase. Within four weeks of operation there were 25 million unique visitors.
According to market research firm ComScore, the primary market for the latest version of Google’s networking platform is the United States, trailed by India. However Google+ is not yet available in China. The main reason for this blockage is due to the customary great firewall of China preventing mainland Chinese access to the product.
Google product Vice President Bradley Horowitz said, “In a few weeks we'll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+,” in a company blog post. Google+ is the company’s newest social networking endeavor.
The 19-month-old product was an attempt by Google to enter the social network market to compete with strong players such as the popular Facebook and Twitter. However, due to numerous privacy concerns, subsequent complaints to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and an $8.5 million sum to settle a class action privacy lawsuit, Google announced the end of the venture.
Horowitz had to admit that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company had to “recently decided to shut down some products, and turn others into features of existing products.”
A critical issue that surfaced was the technique adopted by Buzz to automatically share contact information from Google’s email service Gmail without the consent of the owner of the account. This compromise raised alarm bells regarding the transparency of the product’s operations and user privacy.
Google had to agree to roll out a detailed privacy program and be scrutinized by privacy audits every two years for the next two decades, according to the FTC, as part of the settlement.
There is already an alternative to the fated Buzz, with the launch of Google+ in June. It has been available for public use since Sept. 20.
Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page said during the earnings conference call last Thursday, “People are flocking to Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started,” he said, adding that billions of digital photos had already been shared at Google+.
In July, there were already 10 million users who had registered for Google+’s “limited” trial phase. Within four weeks of operation there were 25 million unique visitors.
According to market research firm ComScore, the primary market for the latest version of Google’s networking platform is the United States, trailed by India. However Google+ is not yet available in China. The main reason for this blockage is due to the customary great firewall of China preventing mainland Chinese access to the product.
