Do you use Gmail?

Do you feel like Google’s new installment to Gmail, Google Buzz, is forcing itself upon you? Does this nonconsensual social networking make you feel uncomfortable? It’s going to be okay. There’s a way out.

Jesse, your AltDaily editor, looked to me for guidance with annoyance and maybe a little bit of fear in his eyes when Google Buzz launched a couple weeks ago and settled itself into his inbox. Not only had Facebook changed formats twice on him in one week, but now the comfort and safety of his email was being turned upside down as well.

Ben Parr, co-editor of Mashable, published an article recently on how Google Buzz is changing the social media landscape and one point really stuck out to me:

“Q: Could Buzz become bigger than Twitter?

A: It already is:

Fancy chart.

While we can’t pinpoint an exact number, Twitter has probably around 18-25 million users worldwide. Heck, let’s say there are 30 million to be generous. Gmail has over 38 million uniques in the U.S., and that was back in September 2009. Worldwide, that number is simply larger.”

Woah woah. Woah. Yes, Gmail is definitely bigger than Twitter. But does it really count for Buzz to be considered “bigger” than Twitter when all 38 million of those Gmail users were automatically defaulted to including Buzz, most of them without even knowing they had it?

You see, Google has been including more and more social features in its search results recently, and have now introduced Buzz to top it all off. And who can blame them for wanting to be a part of the whole online social revolution? You might have noticed real-time search results showing up for hot topics when you search them or maybe the box that says “results from your social circle,” which pulls in blog posts or pictures that might have been uploaded from users in your Gmail contacts. All of that was fairly non-intrusive. Google Buzz’s integration means you are now sharing things with whom Google deems to be your closest network – the people you email with most frequently.

However, I don’t use Gmail to communicate with the people I really care about. I usually just use my face. Or Facebook. Either way it’s not email – that’s work’s realm. And according to countless posts on blogs and other social networks this past week, a lot of other people feel the same way, and feel a little violated. While we might communicate via email with our boss or coworkers on a daily basis, they might not need to know the finer details of our personal life.

Granted, Google is responding to these outcries by adding new privacy settings. But if you haven’t enabled them, or disabled Buzz altogether, you aren’t protected by them.

You can’t let that “Nah, continue to my inbox” link lull you into a false sense of security. Just because you clicked that doesn’t mean you’ve selected to not include Buzz in your inbox, it just means you’re not going to read any of the information about it.

To actually deactivate Buzz you need to scroll down to the bottom of your Gmail page until you get to the copyright info. That’s where you’ll see the tiny little option to “turn off Buzz.”

Feel free to try Buzz out. I won’t even judge you if you like it. A lot of people do. But just know that if you feel trapped or intruded upon, you have options.