Monday, February 15, 2010

Buzz - the deathknell for Gmail

How many people with Gmail accounts were furious when Google decided to activate Buzz and enable your account by default?

So much for don't be evil.

- J.

11 comments:

@$h1$h said...

I recently started reading your blog...love it..with Google Buzz.. I was like - wtf is this...how can I see my friend's friend..

Benjamin Mossé said...

At first I found Buzz very obtrusive. But now I kinda like it!

@$h1$h said...

@Benji: But doesn't it bother you that your friend list is in public to every1?

Benjamin Mossé said...

Absolutely not. In fact I think it's great. It allows me to search for people buzz and discover people that share the most interesting and inspiring stuff.

We have other form of communications for private stuff. This is a Buzz place :)

@$h1$h said...

@Benji: I agree to what you say but have a look at this before using Buzz the next time :)
http://ha.ckers.org/blog/20100216/google-buzz-security-flaw/

Benjamin Mossé said...

OMG google buzz has a XSS! it's the end of the world!

In fact if you look back, GMail had some vulnerabilities in it. Google Docs too. And many other Google applications. But that did not impact much on the fact that several hundreds of thousands of people are using Google products and applications today. And that will not impact that people will also use them in the future.

Same thing for any other massively popular social sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace). The sammy worm did not kill Myspace....

It's probably kinda weird to hear from someone who works in the IT security industry that he does not care much about the XSS in google. But the fact is, I have more trust in Google to handle my emails than in another service provider such as GoDaddy. In the end, Google takes security seriously and addresses every security issues and concerns that may exist soundly.

@$h1$h said...

I second your thought...cause even I use gmail.. :)
If you don't mind, I wanted to ask you a question can I email it to you?

Benjamin Mossé said...

contact[that thing called at]benjamin-mosse[...]com

Jarrod said...

I don't mind Google providing these services but I don't see them shovelling their other apps down your throat.

Enabling products in this manner and exposing personal information without informed user consent is just abhorrent.

I have trusted Google in the past for the reasons Benji stated, but I am still livid.

Benjamin Mossé said...

Yeah I agree with you that shaving stuff in people's throat is usually bad practice.

As for the privacy issue; I believe that privacy on the internet is a myth.

@$h1$h said...

I agree