Following the announcement earlier this evening of Google Buzz, the extension of GMail into social networking, Google Maps 4.0 has been released, advertised with the feature: "Post and view real-time messages & photos at places around the world". Buzz is implemented as another Layer in Google Maps' existing system. For the system to work, you'll have to sign up first for the Google Buzz system, it seems. More later, but some screenshots below to keep you going.
Read on in the full article.
For me it was not available from m.google.com but it was from www.google.com/gmm
There's no need of an invite, AFAICS. If you have a Gmail account, you can activate Buzz by just accepting the EULA, which you will be prompted to do the first time you post a buzz or reply to someone else's buzz.
Edit: I'll elaborate
Step 1: download and install Google Maps 4.0.0.
Step 2: in Options->Levels, check Buzz.
Step 3a: on S60v5 (I haven't tried it on a S60v3 phone), an icon of a talk bubble will appear on the right bottom corner. Tap on this to post a buzz.
Step 3b: on the map, some tiny talk bubbles will also appear. Tapping on any of these will expand the bubble to display the buzz post. Tapping again will open a window with the buzz and all its replies, and will allow you to add a reply.
Step 4: there's no step 4.
can somebody please tell me if they fixed the "stars" so they save in the phone's favourites again?
until google maps has offline support its a non-starter for me.
I'm very happy with Ovi-maps .. except when I visit Japan .. come on Navteq!
Cheers
Was surprised to find no satellite view option in the menu, then after a little digging found it in the layers menu
eheh google buzz will be a very interesting advertising service! italians: http://bit.ly/bHUX3F
Any idea how to make a private buzz from GMM?
I wish this were an announcement for Google Navigation for Symbian! Does anyone know if this is in the works?
anybody worried about privacy? i see tons of buzzes around my town with people showing their exact address/location! surely it should have defaulted to private, with the option to post public, rather than default public. i cant seem to find a way to make private anyway.
You can just select the nearest 'proper' location to your home rather than the exact address if you like. It's one of the choices when you buzz.
Oh dear, I'm using it like a verb etc! And I'm not a honey bee....
There are apparently three forms to buzz from a mobile phone: (1) via Google Maps, (2) from an icon in the google.com web search page, and (3) via buzz.google.com. The Google Maps is the worse of the three, since it won't let you set your buzz as private, nor exclude geotagging. Using method (2), you can exclude geotagging but still only post public buzzes, while (3) is the most flexible offering both to omit geolocation info and to post private buzzes. Unfortunately (2) and (3) are currently only accessible to Android and iPhone users.
Overall, I'm underwhelmed. It looks basically like a Twitter clone, and the few new features it introduces are useless when not pernicious.
thank you, that makes so much more sense. i thought i was just not seeing something that everyone else was seeing. so things just arent online yet except for the google maps app function.
Well, I downloaded Google Maps 4 this morning, enabled the Buzz layer, and buzzed by clicking on the buzz icon later in the day.
This evening, prompted by Steve's tweet that it's now been enabled in Gmail, I closed my Gmail window and opened a new one, and there was my buzz (along with Steve's, plus a list of automatic people to follow and a list of other suggestions). Also, Gmail asks whether you want to connect to Twitter, Flickr, etc.
Let's see how it goes 😉.
Julie
It seems there is indeed a very real flaw (or two) in the Symbian 3rd Ed. version of this at least, if not the 5th Ed too.
As indicated earlier - it's a Privacy issue.
As I ran a test - I MANUALLY used Google Maps/Latitude to change my location to a point about a mile from where I actually am.
I then added a "buzz".
And it instantly placed the Buzz at my ACTUAL location, not the location I had manually set as my current position.
This is not good at all, if Google want to keep the privacy groups happy.
As for another flaw, once I post a Buzz, if I then switch to Latitude mode again by pressing the 6 key, I can find no way or option of then viewing Buzzes near me. I can add a NEW Buzz again. But I can't see buzzes near to me, or find an option to re-list/display them...?
Certainly though, the privacy issue is a BIG one - even if you MANUALLY alter your position in Latitude, any Buzz posted seems to use your REAL location, no matter what!
Oh er!
shadamehr wrote:Certainly though, the privacy issue is a BIG one - even if you MANUALLY alter your position in Latitude, any Buzz posted seems to use your REAL location, no matter what!
That's because Buzz and Latitude aren't currently connected. Maps uses your actual location and thus so does Buzz.
@shadamehr, I am having the opposite problem! Buzz has been getting my location wrong by some distance. Even though the indicator glowing blue blob shows my correct position, it seems to want to choose from a list of location, and has given me a new home address.
JayTay wrote:That's because Buzz and Latitude aren't currently connected. Maps uses your actual location and thus so does Buzz.
The reason is moot - the relevance of it is what matters...
And having full privacy controls in Latitude, the average user in the street would have very rightly expected that if he sets his Latitude position to where he chooses, then if he "Buzzes" about 'that' place, THAT is the place that will be reported back.
Exactly as you say though, and as I fully expected the reason to be, this is not at all what happens, as Buzz has no relevance to Latitude.
The point is, it SHOULD...
Only Google could bring us this new feature, and have it incorporated into Google Maps in such a way that it is is indeed an entirely separate application 'layer' that can't 'talk' to Latitude, and thus cannot utilise any Privacy Controls whatsoever, via Google Maps.
Doh.
Cheers for the post though - yup, I agree with your explanation 'why'.
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