Google Buzz may be all but dead these days, but that does not mean that it can’t be brought back from the brink of destruction and resurrected triumphantly.  The idea of Google Buzz is one to like.  Having a micro-blogging and social-sharing service run by a powerful company like Google, to complete with the likes of Twitter and Facebook, would be good for the overall health, freedom and variety of the Internet.  

But the Buzz launch (a year ago) was an epic disaster.  There were privacy and security issues, and the interface was, and still is, confusing and cluttered.  So here are a few of my ideas to fix Google Buzz and bring it back to the forefront of Internet culture.  

1) Make Buzz a separate application

Remove Buzz from Gmail and make it a separate application, just like Calendar, Documents, Reader, etc. Put a link to the revamped app in the Google page header.  (i.e. Gmail, Calendar, Documents, Buzz...)  

The motivation for combining Buzz and Gmail was likely because Google wanted to capitalize on their existing millions of Gmail users and seamlessly make them Buzz users as well.  But the combination resulted in freaking many people out.  I know I always found having a public sharing feed right next to my email slightly unnerving.  Relaunching Buzz as a separate application might help alleviate some of the privacy and security concerns.  

(Google Buzz fixed; well, not quite)

Separating Gmail and Buzz would also help tidy up the interface of both applications.  The Gmail interface was already getting a bit muddled before the introduction of Buzz.  And things only got worse from there on out.  Keep Gmail the simple, fast and streamlined email application it should be, and make Buzz a separate and optional social-sharing site.  

2) Revamp the Buzz interface

The Buzz interface is like an homage to wasted screen real estate.  All page elements stretch wantonly across the browser window, leaving a lot of empty space.  And even more damning is the fact that you can only view a handful of updates on screen at a time.  The layout of each post is inefficient and takes up too much vertical space.  

Almost everyone has a widescreen monitor these days.  So revamp the Buzz interface for widescreen monitors.  Move the Comment, Like, Reshare and Email buttons up next to the post date and time.  Move the user comments, “previous comments” and “likes” to a new section aligned right of the associated post. Make this section collapsed by default.  Remove the unnecessary “Buzz” title below the username.  (I already know which site I’m on, thanks)  Move the “find people” and “refresh” links to the top of the page, next to the username.  

Provide dedicated, customized and equally-simple UIs for smart phones and tablet devices.  But make the standard Buzz interface as compact as possible and friendly for widescreen displays.  

3) Simplify privacy options and settings

The current Buzz option of being able to set privacy on each individual post is needlessly complex.  Down the line, no one is going to remember who can view which posts.  And to check the users that have access to a post, you have to go through a series of several clicks, first finding the post and then expanding the privacy option.  

Frankly, I don’t see the point of setting privacy on individual posts.  To share something to a limited group of people, just sending them an email makes much more sense.  This is what email is for, after all, and Google already has an awesome email solution in Gmail.  Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.  Once again, keep email and social sharing/bookmarking separate.  

As far as account privacy is concerned, Twitter has the right idea.  Privacy settings on Twitter are simple and easy to understand.  Everything is assumed to be public, unless you limit your account to confirmed users.  Google Buzz should emulate the all-or-none settings of Twitter, in that you should be able to protect all your Buzz updates or have everything publicly viewable.  

4) Give user profiles a short, easy URL

Another good thing about Twitter, is the easy-to-remember and easy-to-type profile URL.  All you have to remember is “twitter.com/username”.  And done.  A Google Buzz profile is something like “http://www.google.com/profiles/username”.  Not nearly as pithy, and not very easy to type.  

Buy up Buzz.com (which right now appears to be some AT&T service that no one uses) and give users an easy profile URL like “buzz.com/username”.  Or how about “buzz.gl/username”?  You have the money to spring for a new domain, Google.  People can start putting these shortened URLs on their business cards. Companies can use the URLs to promote their online presence.  Watch the Buzz usage take off.  

5) Change the default Buzz email notification settings

Many people were disenchanted by Google Buzz when they first activated their account and returned the next day to find their Gmail inboxes overflowing with various notifications that so-and-so liked or commented on their Buzz updates.  This again goes back to maintaining the separation between Gmail and Buzz.  No one wants their email inboxes crammed and overflowing with useless social networking updates. This is why we signed up for Google Buzz or Twitter in the first place, so we could scan through social updates in a dedicated application / website and click through to view more details on the posts we find interesting.  

Yes, you can disable these notifications (buried in your account settings).  But they should be turned off as the application default.  Finally, if someone that I actually know in real life (a friend or family member or someone in the Gmail “my contacts” group) likes or comments on a Buzz update, it’s OK to send an email. Provide a new option to limit notifications to configurable groups.  

In a nutshell...

Get Buzz out of Gmail, and move it to a new, separate application.  And maintain that separation across the board.  Make security and privacy behave more like Twitter’s implementation.  Refresh and simplify the interface, and optimize the layout for widescreen displays.  I suppose I forgot to mention that redesigning the interface would also give you more space for those nice little text ads, Google.  Think about that.  

Seeing a successful Google Buzz would be very cool, because competition is a good thing.  Twitter and Facebook have become too dominant for the common good of the Internet, in my opinion, and individual websites are becoming overlooked and undervalued, with many companies going so far as to promote their primary website as “facebook.com/companyname”.  And some less-computer-literate Internet denizens have started thinking of Twitter and Facebook as THE Internet.  Google Buzz as a serious competitor would help restore some balance to social sharing and the Internet as a whole.