Google Apologizes, Continues To Tweak Buzz

You may not like Buzz, or may not like how it was launched (you’re not alone), but you have to give Google credit for listening and continuing to change Buzz in response to user feedback and criticisms.

Google has just announced three tweaks to Buzz and, at the same time, offered an apology for what it calls a “challenging week”:

We quickly realized that we didn’t get everything quite right. We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We’ll continue to do so.

Here are the three changes announced today:

1. Auto-follow becomes auto-suggest. For new Buzz users, Google will not automatically set their account to follow the contacts they’ve emailed and chatted with in Gmail. Instead, Buzz will suggest people to follow — but with the entire list pre-selected, as shown in this image from Google’s blog post:

Google says this same interface will be made available to existing Buzz users “over the next couple weeks.”

2. Picasa and Google Reader won’t be connected to Buzz automatically.

3. New “Buzz” tab in Gmail settings. Google is adding a new tab to Gmail’s settings; this is where users will choose to show or hide follower/following lists, to include Buzz in the Gmail interface, or to disable Buzz completely. Doing the latter will delete all your Buzz posts and delete your Google Profile, too.