[6][7] Buzz enabled users to choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a group of friends each time they posted.

The creation of Buzz was seen by industry analysts as an attempt by Google to compete with social networking websites like Facebook and microblogging services like Twitter.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that by offering social communications, Buzz would help bridge the gap between work and leisure,[9] but the service was strongly criticized when it was introduced for insufficient attention to users' privacy.

[4] Google Buzz was announced on February 9, 2010, in a press conference at the company's Mountain View headquarters and launched on the same day, at 11 a.m. PT for the first set of users.

[27] Google twice tried to address privacy concerns: first by making the option to disable public sharing of contact lists more prominent[28] and later by changing one of Buzz's features from "auto-follow" to "auto-suggest".

[36] Also on February 16, 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote "These problems arose because Google attempted to overcome its market disadvantage in competing with Twitter and Facebook by making a secondary use of your information.

When companies consult with us at the development stage, they can avoid the problems we've seen in recent days.On November 2, 2010, Google e‑mailed Gmail users to tell them about the outcome of the lawsuit.

[40] As part of its settlement, Google agreed to create an $8.5 million fund to award money to groups that promote privacy education on the web, of which the prosecuting lawyers are requesting 25% ($2,125,000) "plus reimbursement of costs and expenses".

In the announcement, the FTC agreed with the EPIC complaint that Google had violated its privacy policies by using information provided for Gmail for another purpose - social networking - without obtaining consumers’ permission in advance.

The FTC also alleged that Google misrepresented that it was treating personal information from the European Union in accordance with the US-EU Safe Harbor privacy framework.

CBC indicated "One user blogged about how Buzz automatically added her abusive ex-boyfriend as a follower and exposed her communications with a current partner to him.

[46] Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted "there isn't much in Buzz that is new or original" and "the end result is a service that shows promise but lacks the requisite killer feature or innovative twist that it will need in order to truly keep people engaged".