I want the option of looking at Buzz with a List view or Expanded view (or user specific view - talked about below). Just like Google reader. Give me the the first 140 characters like twitter, and then let me pop it open if I want to read more, or see all the comments. No pictures or videos at first glance please.
Mute needs to work like it does in Wave. If I mute a conversation I don't want to see it again unless I go looking for it. Seems like currently the idea is I wont get notified of the anything in Gmail if I mute it. But I don't consider Gmail my Buzz inbox. The main stream is my Buzz inbox. If I mute it, I mean mute it from my stream. If you want to keep it that way (where mute is affecting your Gmail inbox instead of my Buzz inbox/stream) then you need to allow me to delete a post. And once it is deleted, it does not show up in my Buzz stream again. If I want to see it again, I would have to go to that user's individual stream and view it there, or undelete it there to allow it back into my main stream.
I need lists or something. Actually, in true Google fashion give me labels/tags. There are too many people I don't really want in my everyday stream. Some people are just too noisy. I get it - you like Star Wars and Legos - I don't want to see every picture you found of that shit on the web today. But I still want a list of all you freaks to check in on from time to time.
Give me stars to tag favorites with and I want a quick click button toolbar on each Buzz post. I don't want to click down arrows and select stuff. Let me click and keep moving.
These are all things that are already part of other Google products. Seems easy to bring them over here (seems easy because it's not what I do).
But here is where it would be nice to see Google put in a little extra effort. I want better user/follow settings.
I would like the ability to tag a user as a certain type and that would dictate how their buzz showed up. Maybe a ranking (or super star) system. If I rank someone a 1 - then no matter what they post I see the whole post and a large chunk of comments below. If I tag them a 2, I get the 140 characters of the post with icons letting me know there are pics/videos, how many likes and comments attached to the post, etc. If I tag them a 3, I see their name collapsed behind other Buzz posts, just letting me know that they had something there but with no other info on it in my way. I can click to see more. But no matter what - I only see them in my stream when they post. People commenting on their post does not elevate it to the top of my stream again.
To make this work, I need a small tool/link bar that runs across the top of each user/post so I can make changes to their classifications on the fly. On the left side of this bar there is a 1, 2, 3. I click on that to move that user around in the ranking system. I can only have one of these selected at a time. Obviously we can do better than numbers, but you get the drift. On the right of the tool bar is a star, a mute and an X. The star makes it a favorite, the mute makes sure I don't get notified about it in Gmail and the X makes it go away forever (unless I go undelete it on the users page).
And dear god, don't give me a "follower settings" page. If you make me do that, or go to a list view of the people I follow and decide how much I care about them - it's worthless. I need to be able to mark/tag them on the fly. Everyone starts as a 3 when I follow them. As I see their posts more (and how much they post lolcats and avatar shit) I can just reclassify them as I move through my stream. And as soon as I move someone from a 3 to a 1, all the post in my stream should reformat to the new setting (oK - that seems kind of hard - so I'll just refresh after making a change if I care that much).
On a side note - I really like getting a Buzz update in Gmail and it works like I was on the Buzz tab. I want that with Wave too. I want a Wave to come to Gmail and act like a Wave when I have it open.
Then after Buzz does all that, I would like it to make me a burrito.
