Google's 'last step' in Buzz shutdown: moving all data to Google Drive
Google's social networking effort Buzz shut its doors last year but has popped up yet again, for what may be the last time. In an email that just went out to former users, Google noted it's packaging Buzz data into two files which will be stored on their Drive accounts. One is private, which will hold all of their posts both public and private, and another is public, which will contain a copy of any of their public Buzz posts, accessible to anyone who has a direct link (old Buzz links will redirect here.) One important note, is that your comments on others posts will be saved to their Drive files, and you won't be able to delete them once the shift happens "on or after July 17th." Need to do a total wipe / some selective editing? Check the link below to see your profile or the text of the message for a more thorough explanation after the break.
Show full PR text
Buzz user,
In October 2011 we announced Google Buzz was shutting down. On or after July 17th, 2013, Google will take the last step in the shutdown and will save a copy of your Buzz posts to your Google Drive, a service for storing files online. Google will store two (2) types of files to your Google Drive, and the newly-created files will not count against your storage limits.
The first type of file will be private, only accessible to you, containing a snapshot of the Google Buzz public and private posts you authored.
The second type of file will contain a copy of only your Google Buzz public posts. By default it will be viewable by anyone with the link, and may appear in search results and on your Google Profile (if you've linked to your Buzz posts). Note, any existing links to your Google Buzz content will redirect users to this file.
Any comments you made on other users' posts will only be saved to those users' files and not to yours. Once the change described in this email is final, only that user will be able to change the sharing settings of those files. This means that if you have commented on another author's private post, that author could choose to make that post and its comments public. If you would like to avoid that possibility, delete all your Buzz content now.
The new Google Drive files will only contain comments from users that previously enabled Google Buzz, and the files will not contain comments that were deleted prior to moving the data to your Google Drive.
Once the files are created, they will be treated the same as any other Drive file. They are yours to do with as you please. This includes downloading them, updating who can access them, or deleting them.
Before these files are created, you can view the Google Buzz posts you have authored here. If you do not want any of your Buzz posts or comments saved to Google Drive files, you can immediately delete your Google Buzz account and data.
Thank you for using Google Buzz.
