Discover How To Use Google Buzz and Turn It Off

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Yesterday nearly at 10pm in night, I was greeted by Google with Google Buzz. As Google said in their event, Google Buzz really brings social networking into my Gmail. Whether or not you’re on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, Buzz offers a somewhat new and interesting approach.

Google Buzz brings real time updates which currently found on social sites like Twitter and Facebook directly into your Gmail Inbox. This is really new way to start conversations about your new interesting findings or your can share updates, photos, videos, links and anything you’d like to share with your Gmail contacts. The best part is you don’t have to download or install any new application to use Google Buzz, just buzz  your updates from Gmail account. When you click Buzz which is just below your inbox link, you’ll see all the posts from friends your are following and a box on topmost to post your updates. Here’s are some of the basic functions :

1) Google Buzz in your Gmail

Click on Buzz icon on left sidebar below Inbox icon(if you don’t see this icon, Google Buzz is being rolled out to everyone slowly so just wait for sometime and you Gmail Inbox should have this feature very soon).

2) Following and Followers

Google Buzz automatically display your followers and followings Gmail users for the first time when you click on Buzz icon. It is based on people you email and chat most.

3) Follow and Unfollow

Just like follow/unfollow concept on Twitter, you can also do it here in Google Buzz. You can follow someone if you like and unfollow when their updates annoys you. Click on “Following no. of people”, in my case it was “Following 31 people” just below your status update box in Google Buzz. Now “Unfollow” the contact whom you don’t want to follow and click “Done” in bottom left of the pop-up.

When you scroll the same pop-up window, you will see a box to search for more public profiles or the contacts already in your contacts list. You can follow people by these options or also by automatic suggestions provided by Google Buzz as you see below.

4) Share Links, Photos, Videos and much more

Google Buzz lets you share photos, video, links to web sites, and other content from all over the web with your Gmail contacts. Even you can make share your updates public or private with some people you choose from the list your followers.

5) Comment, Like/Unlike, Email the content

• Comment : Pretty Simple, if you see a post shared by your contact want like to comment on that, just click the “Comment” button under that post. You can also edit your comment after posting it, by clicking “edit” button in front of your comment.

• Like/Unlike : Sometimes there is nothing to say about but still you like the post, just click on “Link” button. Changed your heart, undo like by clicking on “Unlike” button.

• Email the content : Click the Email button and a new Gmail message will open with the buzz content in the subject and message body.

6) Link to the post, Chat, View all buzz from user, Mute the post (Hide particular post)

• Link to the post : Click the down-arrow to the right of a post, and select Link to this buzz. This allows you to send a link to this content.
• Chat : You can chat with the person who posted the content directly in Google Buzz if the person is online.
• View all Buzz from user : By clicking on “View all buzz from user”, it will show all buzz contents of that user. You can also see all buzz contents of any user by clicking on the user name, it will re-direct you to that user’s profile.
• Mute this post : You can also mute any buzz that appears in your Google Buzz inbox by clicking “Mute this post” which mutes the update from continuing to appear in your inbox as people comment or like to it.
• Stop following and Report abuse : Can’t explain this feature to you as I have not used it till know.

7) Direct Messages

Write @ in front of someone’s username with the message and it will automatically go to their inbox.

8 ) Connected Sites

This feature helps you to update status in your Google Buzz from Twitter, Google Chat Status, Picasa, Google Reader and Flickr. Click on “connected sites” link above your status update box and a pop-up window will open in Google Buzz and from there you can manage which one of the sites you want to connect.

9) Hide Google Buzz updates from your Gmail Inbox

Even good things comes with bad ones also, same in the case with Google Buzz. So sometimes you get annoyed when all of the social sites notifications automatically re-directed to your Gmail Inbox. But you can hide Buzz updates from your inbox very easily. Any Buzz notification automatically depicts the Gmail query label:buzz, so all you have to do is create a filter to keep such notifications out of your inbox. Let us see how to it works :

Select any buzz notifications from your inbox which has Buzz icon in the end of the subject line. Click on “Filter messages like these” in “more actions’ tab.

Then, in the Has words text box in the filter tool, enter label:buzz. You can also test the search to make sure it only filters the buzz notifications. Now click the “Next Step” button, you will get warning by Gmail that Filter searches containing “label:buzz” . So click OK and move forward to final step of the process.

Finally, click the checkbox next to “Skip the Inbox (Archive it).

Now click on “Apply the label”, drop down the options and you will see “New Label”. Name the label as you want and from now on, you Gmail inbox is free from buzz notifications. All the buzz notification will be redirected to label you just created.

10) Turn off Google Buzz completely

If you want to completely turn off Google Buzz from your Gmail, just click on the “turn off buzz” button at the very bottom of your Gmail window.

That is all over for now. Hope this tips will help you to rock your Google Buzz account. You can also view my google profile and follow me by clicking “Follow” on the top right hand corner to follow my buzz.