Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or lack a Gmail account), there’s no doubt you’ve heard of, tested or been genuinely confused by the launch of Google Buzz. One morning in February, I opened my Gmail account and there it was- 35 “buzz” notifications. “I must be popular”, I thought. After clicking into these messages, I realized I was not very popular, I was just inundating myself with more general useless knowledge about people I would have genuinely not heard from until my 20 year high school reunion. AWESOME.

Pondering what was happening to my “Google life” as I had known it, I had to ask the question: “Is everyone else failing to see how this is the next best thing?” Now that we’ve all had time to watch Google Buzz appear in our Google Accounts, get really confused on what we are supposed to do with it and discuss our reactions online, I thought it was the perfect time to gauge what we’ve all said about Google’s new social attempt and what it might mean for our social media future.

Though semantic text analysis, I was able to group similar conversations within the larger group of negative Google Buzz reactions. The results of this thematic analysis begin to validate my own initial thoughts. Going by the numbers, it seems many of you thought like I did. I’ll being by addressing what appears to be the major negative point, functionality. “What do I do with this?”, “It’s like Facebook and Twitter wrapped up in one” and “too many notifications” are among the reactions discussed by consumers since its launch. Adding to the pandemonium, many are linking their Twitter accounts to Buzz. This in turn forces Buzz to become an aggregator of Twitter posts, adding little to no value to the information circulating on the tool and the people using it. 17% of you really bring up a great point, what are we going to do with this?

Security concerns were a reoccurring factor, appearing in four of the major clusters of conversation for Google Buzz. Ranging from Parental control issues to panic about personal information in your Google account, it’s all there. After all, Google basically turned this service on for us, acting as if we subscribed to it. The reality is, we didn’t opt in to anything and now, all of a sudden, my Gmail status message is being broadcast to anyone who wants to follow me. Sneaky and very creepy, Google. This poses another question, “what exactly are the boundaries between social interaction and user privacy?”

In addition, I would like to call attention to a smaller subset of conversation that surfaced around smartphones. Comprising about 4% of discussion, many consumers complained that Buzz has not been compatible with their smartphones. As mobile usage is forecasted to grow, this seems like a huge disconnect from what we are all really looking to do with our online social experiences.

Combining the major points of feedback, we can collectively answer the questions asked earlier in this post. Until functionality has improved, security issues have been addressed, Google Buzz will fall to the wayside, just as Google Wave has failed to make an impact in how we share information.

Join the discussion—Do you like or dislike Google Buzz and why? What are your major hang ups and praises for the new social tool?