Google - Buzz and Apps

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Mar 142010

Not Buzzing

The excitement at the arrival of the latest Google social platform soon turned to disappointment when I realised that Buzz was not available for people using the Google Apps (or Gmail on your own domain) service. Google promised that it would be available to Apps users within a couple of months but who wants to wait?

After discovering that Buzz is available to Apps users through Google Maps on mobile phones, I wondered if there was a way to convert this functionality to the desktop. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to find the following article on Mashable:

http://mashable.com/2010/02/13/google-buzz-ssb/

Just One Complication

Unfortunately these instructions don’t work. At least they don’t work for Apps users!

Fortunately, it’s easily fixed by checking through the comments!

The original instructions essentially set up a stand alone browser window that takes you to your GMail sign in screen. As Google Apps users will no doubt know, this creates a problem. Signing in on this screen doesn’t work for Apps users, it takes us to a screen asking if we want to set up a Gmail account. This is a pain for many reasons but most importantly, it breaks this app.

Easy Fix

There is a solution to this problem posted in the comments. Instead of using the URL in the Mashable instructions, use the following:

https://m.google.com/app/buzz

This URL is provided by Google for use on mobile devices. Since your computer is not using a mobile browser, when you start the app you get a compatibility warning but this can be clicked away. You then get a sign in screen that you can use with your email and password.

After this, it works perfectly!

Of course, it’s also possible to use the URL in your browser but there’s something quite nice about it opening separately.

Conclusions?

This is far from an ideal solution. There is non of the integration with Gmail and it’s not really a standalone app, it’s a website specific browser window. Will I use it? Possibly, it does fill a hole but I hope it will be filled by something else very soon!