How I’d Fix Buzz, Which is a Mess

Wednesday I posted that it was a mess. It still is. Very messy. Today they released a feature that auto collapses comments on posts that have a lot of comments based on some kind of logic. There was a consensus in the comments of Buzz’s official post–that’s not what people wanted.

It stinks.

Someone made a great suggestion to make it more like Reader. Spot on.

Buzz should follow Reader’s interface. Only have a count of what’s new, what’s updated, and what’s read. And be able to:

  • Show New (count)
  • Show New  (count) and Updated (count)
  • Show All

Like Reader, don’t assume I read something if it’s at the bottom of my screen. Mark it read if I read it, or if I choose to mark it read. Today, if something is buried below the fold, Buzz assumes you’ve read it.

Like Reader, have everything collapsed unless I tell you open each (by navigating or otherwise). If I’m in the mood, let me just mark everything as read.

Basically, copy Reader.

Also, have @reply hotlinks next to everyone’s comments for easy referencing other’s. I still don’t understand how it’s done if you don’t know someone’s gmail address.

And finally, add a +follow link too next to everyone’s comments for easy adding. I choose to follow people based on their commenting. So that would save me (and I bet a lot of others) a lot of wasted clicks.