Courtesy of: vator.tv/news

Well, Google Buzz is in trouble again. The social networking component to Google, that’s integrated into Gmail settings, is now under the scrutiny of 11 lawmakers that have asked the FTC to investigate if the product breaches consumer privacy.

Just last month, Melanie wrote about the Electronic Privacy Information Center filing a complaint and law firms in San Francisco and Washington DC filing a class action lawsuit with the FTC against Google Buzz because of the service’s breach of consumer privacy.

Usually, the launch of social networking sites are met with positive responses because people are excited to find yet another way to connect with friends. I remember enthusiastically joining Friendster, MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook when I discovered those were the popular sites where new and old friends convene. However, that excitement just doesn’t seem to translate to when I think about Google Buzz. Despite Google’s repeated attempts to tweak the Buzz model, the lawsuits and complaints raise flags to not wholeheartedly dive into Buzz’s social network like I did with the others.

Facebook on the other hand seems to be clearly dominating the market, with people spending the majority of their time online using Facebook and searching for Facebook. Could it be that Google’s Buzz was just a not-so-well-thought-out social networking response to a worthy competitor?

Posted by Adrienne on April 5, 2010 at 3:29pm.