Products · Product
Google Buzz
Raised as a usability problem by 28 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2010–2025), in 13 threads.
People raised many different problems with Google Buzz, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 32 complaints
- Felt clunky, concepts not intuitive, and frustrating to keep using2025-04-15
- Dark patterns pushed Gmail users into Buzz without choosing it2016-10-27
- Navigating Buzz inside Gmail was painful for users2011-07-01
- Cannot find a way to delete Buzz account without deleting Google account2011-03-30
- Confirmation button looked like it turned Buzz off but only skipped configuration, leaving sharing on2010-11-12
- Can't tell whether contact sharing is off; accidental clicks re-enabled it2010-11-02
- Launched with little UX input, so the product likely has usability problems2010-07-03
- Commenter found Buzz's UX terrible, citing it as a counterexample to Google's UX reputation2010-07-03
- Hard to disable; opt-out link was misleading and required deleting public profile2010-02-18
- Users misunderstand how Buzz works and what information it reveals to others2010-02-15
- Can't tell what's public on profile; only visible by viewing from another account2010-02-15
- Buzz looks set up after a status change but still won't work until full profile setup2010-02-15
- Public connected-sites setting cannot be edited, and finding the controls is hard2010-02-13
- Clicking 'No thanks' still enabled Buzz, auto-following contacts without a clear opt-out2010-02-13
- Can't tell whether contacts are auto-following or being followed; unclear what opting in did2010-02-13
- Privacy policy is too confusing for people to understand2010-02-13
- Users are confused about who automatically follows them and what they can see2010-02-12
- Users click blindly through modal prompts and can't tell which button did what2010-02-12
- Took a long time to find the turn-off button, not in normal settings2010-02-12
- The button to turn Buzz off isn't intuitive to find2010-02-12
- Buzz was enabled automatically and the disable link was hard to find2010-02-12
- Had to search to find how to hide contacts from being public2010-02-12
- User can't figure out how to control who follows them or whether they follow others2010-02-12
- Tiny 'Nah' choice and hidden link at bottom make turning Buzz off hard2010-02-12
- Interface too confusing to quickly read what's new; unread count doesn't separate new items from old comments2010-02-12
- Clicking 'No thanks' doesn't disable Buzz; the opt-out is a tiny footer link2010-02-12
- Users can't figure out how to set preferences to stop automatic following2010-02-12
- Privacy settings are hard to find and feel unintuitive2010-02-12
- Opting out of Buzz is counter-intuitive and hard to undo after clicking yes2010-02-12
- Clicking one Okay button instantly adds many connections and noise users didn't expect2010-02-11
- Unclear which posts are public, so user may leak something unintentionally2010-02-11
- User can't find the option to turn Buzz off in Settings2010-02-11