Is Google Wave getting Buzzed?

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Google Wave was one of Google’s biggest announcements of last year but now it looks to be an afterthought among the tech trendsetters after the launch of Google Buzz in early February. Privacy concerns mostly laid to rest, Google Buzz is actually doing much of what Google Wave promised: collaborative discussion, media sharing, and social networking within an email-like framework.

Frankly, I use Google Buzz more than Google Wave since my GMail is always open, accessing Buzz is pretty quick unlike Wave where a whole new interface is shown to you. While Buzz does not have all of Wave’s features … yet, who knows it may incorporate them all in the near future.

For now, Buzz is geared more on the social sharing with people who are interested in what you think (like Twitter) while Wave is designed to making users more productive in their work lives as a collaboration tool, while Buzz is more about “social sharing and passive sharing with people who are interested in what you think.

In my case, between the two, I barely used Wave except the first time I wanted to check out what it was all about. After that, it has been Buzz for me ever since. What about you?

Google Buys DocVerse

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Add another chapter to a series of company buy-offs between Google and Microsoft. Google Inc. has acquired a company called DocVerse to help the Internet search leader round out its online software programs and provide more ammunition in its duel with Microsoft Corp.

DocVerse provides tools that make its possible for people to use the Internet to work together on documents formatted in one of Microsoft’s word processing, spreadsheet or presentation programs. The startup was founded in 2007 by former Microsoft employees Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui.

Google offers programs that are similar to the Microsoft software but are hosted on Web sites. The approach, sometimes dubbed “cloud computing,” is part of Google’s attempt to weaken Microsoft, which makes much of its money by selling software that’s installed on individual computer drives.

By adding DocVerse’s tools, Google appears to preparing to pitch people who feel more comfortable working with Microsoft Office applications. DocVerse estimates more than 600 million people rely on Microsoft’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs.

DocVerse is Google’s 9th company acquisition. So. Let’s see what Microsoft will do next …

Google Introduces Disable Buzz Link to Gmail

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Previously, Google educated Buzz users on how to switch their following and followers lists to private. By default these are set to public and so, anyone who views your Google profile can see who’s following you and who you’re following. This irritated a lot of people because their most used contacts were revealed to the public.

A Buzz tab is also added to the settings in Gmail. Before everything was all spread out: The switch to decide not to display your followers lists was buried in your Google profile settings, the “turn Buzz off” link was way down at the bottom of your Gmail window, and anything to do with private and public Buzz updates were inside the Buzz tab. Google has made things a littler easier by endeavoring to put all the Buzz related settings in one place.

Another change is that Google will no longer connect your Google Reader and your Picasa account with Buzz. Anyone who signed up for Buzz before had to manually disable this. If they did not, then anything they shared on Reader would be posted in their Buzz stream and Google would show any updates to Picasa albums and in some cases, even Twitter.

Perhaps the biggest change is the addition of a “Disable Buzz Completely” link. When exploring Buzz for the first time, people were prompted to set up Google profiles. If they decided they didn’t like this new social-media effort from Google, they could switch it off via a “switch off Buzz” link at the bottom of their Gmail page.

However, what most people don’t realize is that this link does not undo all of your previous Buzz activity. It merely hides the Buzz tab and stops the constant stream of Buzz updates to your inbox. Your Google profile is still live, all your Buzz posts are there and if you didn’t set your followers lists to private, people can still view them. This ‘out of sight out of mind’ approach has been replaced by a more permanent solution that carries the warning, “This will disable Google Buzz in Gmail and delete your Google profile and Buzz posts. It will also disconnect any connected sites and unfollow you from anyone you are following.

At least, right? Not all people may be fond with Google Buzz so this option is a welcome sight for GMail users.