Google launches campaign to promote Buzz privacy settings

Google has kicked off a campaign to promote its redesigned Buzz social networking platform, which now boasts improved privacy features such as auto-following.

“Shortly after launching Google Buzz, we quickly realized we didn’t get everything right and moved as fast as possible to improve the Buzz experience,” Google product manager Todd Jackson acknowledged in an official blog post.

“We made a number of changes to the getting started experience based on your feedback, the most significant of which was replacing auto-following with suggestions for people to follow. [So], rather than automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with most, Google Buzz now suggests people for you to follow instead.”

According to Jackson, the campaign to promote Buzz’s upgraded privacy settings was prompted by the fact that a number of individuals began using the social networking platform before the above-mentioned changes could be implemented.  

“[That is why] we want to help ensure that Buzz is set up the way you want. Offering everyone who uses our products transparency and control is very important to us,” explained Jackson.

“You can [now] view and edit the people you’re following and the people following you, elect whether you want those lists appearing on your public Google profile, and modify any of the sites you have connected to Google Buzz, like Picasa, Google Reader, or Twitter.”