Google Buzz Is About to Finally Buzz Off

More than 18 months after announcing that it was shutting down Google Buzz, Google is taking the final steps in snuffing out the platform.

According to an email sent to Buzz users, as of July 17, 2013, Google will remove the posts from its public servers and archive them to users Google Drive acounts.

Google Buzz — for those of you who don't remember — was Google's first attempt at a broader social strategy. In many ways, the network can be viewed as a precursor to Google+.

It took elements from Twitter and Facebook, but was focused on existing within a special tab in Gmail. The idea was that users could share quick updates with their followers or frequent contacts from within the inbox. The service could also syndicate content from other services — a la FriendFeed — and conversations could take place around that content.

Almost from the start, Buzz was beset with questions over privacy. Its opt-in, auto-follow and subscribe nature was met with a user backlash. Just seven months after the service was launched, Google had to settle an $8.5 million class-action lawsuit with users over the potential privacy breeches in the product.

Even worse, the product just never caught on with users. The idea of having a social network feed built into the inbox wasn't a bad idea, but the service didn't offer any compelling features to draw in users.

Google would try again with social, with the launch of Google+ in June, 2011. Google+ has had much more success, with the company now boasting 190 million active users.

The email sent to Google Buzz users is reproduced below.

Buzz user,

In October 2011 we announced Google Buzz was shutting down. On or after July 17th, 2013, Google willtake the last step in the shutdown and will save a copy of your Buzz posts to your Google Drive, a service for storing files online. Google will store two (2) types of files to your Google Drive, and the newly-created files will not count against your storage limits.

1. The first type of file will be private, only accessible to you, containing a snapshot of the Google Buzz public and private posts you authored.

2. The second type of file will contain a copy of only your Google Buzz public posts. By default it will be viewable by anyone with the link, and may appear in search results and on your Google Profile (if you've linked to your Buzz posts). Note, any existing links to your Google Buzz content will redirect users to this file.

3. Any comments you made on other users' posts will only be saved to those users' files and not to yours. Once the change described in this email is final, only that user will be able to change the sharing settings of those files. This means that if you have commented on another author's private post, that author could choose to make that post and its comments public. If you would like to avoid that possibility, delete all your Buzz content now.

4. The new Google Drive files will only contain comments from users that previously enabled Google Buzz, and the files will not contain comments that were deleted prior to moving the data to your Google Drive.

Once the files are created, they will be treated the same as any other Drive file. They are yours to do with as you please. This includes downloading them, updating who can access them, or deleting them.

Before these files are created, you can view the Google Buzz posts you have authored here. If you do not want any of your Buzz posts or comments saved to Google Drive files, you can immediately delete your Google Buzz account and data.

Thank you for using Google Buzz.

Did you use Google Buzz? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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