Buzz even bypassed Google User Testing

When we wrote about the factors that made Buzz into a Slow Motion Train Wreck, one of our hypotheses was that they didn't test it with a representative sample of typical users. We wrote:

Google say Buzz product was user tested, but I suspect it was by the same demographic who built it rather than the people who may use it.

Turns out that they didn't even test it with the standard Google "friends and family" groups either! Its on the BBC.

Many of the firm's new services are tested by the so-called Google Trusted Tester program, a network of friends and family of Google employees who are given confidential access to products before they launch.

Buzz was not tested by this program.

The result has been one of the biggest f*ck-ups Google has ever made, and in an area as sensitive as Social Media Privacy - what with Social Media being an area where Google has been less than stellar to date and Privacy being something they are increasingly in the dock over, that is absolutely incredible.

Various theories have emerged as to the why Google did this, from pure inexperienced hubris to the view that they were racing to get something out before Facebook launched its alternative webmail service, to protect Ad revenues.

In the old days, Kremlin watchers used to look at the fate that befell various apparatchiks, so watching the fate of Buzz Project manager (Todd Jackson) may tell which of these hypotheses is the case.

Of course, one could always shoot an Intern