Google Tutor

Posted: 24 Mar 2010 06:00 AM PDT

Google Buzz was just launched a few weeks ago, and Google Buzz for mobile wasn’t far behind. If you are trying to get the biggest buzz for your time on Google Buzz, we have 21 tips for you.

Watch your Buzz

Take a look at your own Buzz activity in the Google dashboard. We wrote about Google Dashboard recently, and now that Buzz is part of the Google family, you can spot (and monitor) your own activity using this application.
Post directly to your friend’s inbox using @reply

The Gmail Blog gave a rundown of some Buzz tips, including this one: You can make sure your friend sees a particular Buzz post by sending it straight into their inbox. All you need to do is type the “@” symbol, follow it with their name (auto-complete will take care of everything after the first few letters). Although you are selecting the person’s email address from the list, other people in Buzz will only see your friend’s name.
Fly through your Buzz posts

Activate Keyboard Shortcuts from the settings page, to use “j” or “n” to scroll down the buzz tab, “k” or “p” to go back up, “r” to comment, “m” to mute a post, and “shift + l” to indicate your like a post.
Mute posts

Avoid posts from showing up in your inbox by muting them. Normally, any comments on your posts, or commentary posted after you’ve commented on an item, shows up directly in your inbox. Perhaps you just want to comment but don’t want to see the rest of the chatter, so an easy solution is to then mute that particular post. Click the arrow in the corner of a buzz post and select “Mute this post.”
Borrow formatting controls from Google Talk

The same controls that formats your Talk, can format your Buzz: *bold*, _italics_, or -strikethrough-.
Stop boring your Buzz followers

As a default, your status updates in Gmail Chat gets posted to Buzz. If you want to avoid boring messages, such as “be right back”, getting a Buzz post dedicated to them, just place parentheses around it.
Spot the new Buzz

You can easily spot what’s new in Buzz by looking for the yellow line next to the post. Anything posted to Buzz after the last time you logged in will be marked like this.
Post by email

Email your Buzz posts to buzz@gmail.com to have them show up in your Buzz stream. The subject line of the email shows up, as well as any pictures you attach to your email.
Link to a post

Need to point to a post? Each one has a permalink associated with it, and you can easily link to any Buzz post. Click the down-arrow in the upper right-hand corner of a post, and select “Link to this post.” Of course, can only see the posts you have access to.
Control what you see in your inbox

You have control over what kind of Buzz is delivered to your inbox. Simply set your preferred settings in the “Buzz” tab of the Gmail settings menu. You choose if you receive comments on your posts in your inbox, comments on posts after you have commented on them, or comments on posts after you have been @replied on them.
Use Buzz on your phone

You can use Buzz on your iPhone or Android 2+ device from the web application at buzz.google.com.
Tag your location

Using Google Buzz on your phone, you can tag your location by tapping the location box in the posting screen. Add an address or a place name, or search for your location. Easily tag your post with your location, and your Buzz is enhanced with this information.
Get more than just location

When another person tags their Buzz with a location, you can find out more than you might think at first glance: Click ‘Show map’ to see the address of that place and a small map, which you can tap to see a bigger, fully functional map. The place link will show you business details, reviews, photos, and more associated with the tagged location.
Follow and meet new people

There are tons of public posts and comments that might be interesting, but Buzzed by people you don’t know yet. If you want to start following these interesting new contacts, just tap their name to visit the person’s mobile profile page, click the ‘Buzz’ tab, and tap ‘Follow’. The ‘Contact Info’ tab only includes information from the person’s public Google profile, and this only includes the information the person has chosen to share. This might seem a bit stalker-like, but if you are posting publicly, you could expect that some people would take an interest in what you have to say and start following your new Buzz updated.
To share or not to share

When posting to Buzz, you can chose to post publicly as well (see the tip above, if the cool new people you are following wouldn’t have posted this way, you never would have seen their Buzz).
You can also share your Buzz with a group (privately). To create a new group to share privately, you’ll need to visit Buzz in Gmail or google.com/contacts from your computer.
Buzz your locations

On your Google Maps for Mobile there is a new layer for Buzz. Now you can see whether there is Buzz related to a place near you, or anywhere else on a map that interests you. You can also post Buzz directly from the layer, but it will make it public.
Buzz new locations

What to know whats buzzing at a particular location? Try the mobile place page to read buzz and recent comments about that place. This could be very tempting when you are traveling and what to see what’s going on in a new city.
Use the voice shortcut

There is a voice shortcut to get to your Google Mobile Buzz. You can find it in the quick search widget on Android phones, and in the Google Mobile App on the iPhone. You don’t need to type anything, just say “post buzz” and keep talking to record your Buzz update.

Stay posted in Buzz… about Buzz

Keep up to date about everything new in Google Buzz by following Google Buzz at buzz.google.com/googlebuzz. This is also a way for you to send feedback directly to the Buzz team.