One thing that most social networking sites have is the ability to re-share or re-post content. Not wanting to stay behind, and at the popular request of users, Google announced today on the Official Gmail Blog the introduction of a new resharing feature to the somewhat popular Google Buzz. The new feature, according to Google, is being rolled out to Buzz users gradually, which means that it will take a few days before everyone gets it. There’s no reason to panic if you don’t see it just yet.
The resharing feature competes directly with the Facebook “share” option, and Twitter’s “retweet” capability among others. Unlike some of the aforementioned social networking services though, the Buzz reshare option allows users to add their own commentary to the post. Google Software Engineer Sam Goto states that that they have been testing the feature for quite a while now. Goto adds that this feature will only work with public posts, considering that private posts were intended for a limited audience only.
So how does the new resharing feature works?
Well, as soon as the resharing capability becomes available to you, all you have to do is click on “Reshare” when you see a post you like. Then, you’ll be able to type anything you want and make the post public or private. Last thing you do is click on “Post,” and that’s it. A link to the original post will be included in the reshared item.
Google posted the following information about the new resharing feature:
- First, back to those two clicks: one click vs. two click reshare was a hard choice (I know, it doesn’t sound so hard, but we spent a lot of time on this!). Ultimately, we chose to go with two clicks because we want people to be able to reshare publicly or privately and also encourage resharers to add their own new content to the post.
- If you follow a bunch of people who all reshare the same thing, the last thing you want is for that same post to appear over and over again. When this happens, similar posts get collapsed, so you should only see each thing once.
- You’ll notice that resharing creates a new post, effectively forking the conversation. To fork or not fork was a decision we debated for a while. Ultimately, we think forked conversations help create more varied, intimate discussions around a single item. We realize people may want a non-forking version too, so we’re thinking about how to do that as well.
- When there is a chain of reshares, the names of all of the people who publicly reshare the post appear on the original item, even if they’re not directly connected to the original author. If you share something that ends up getting passed around by lots of other people, it’s pretty cool to see that.
- If you “like” a reshare, you don’t automatically also “like” the original post. Imagine what would happen if I reshare a very positive movie review and write “What a joke! This movie was terrible!” Someone who likes my post probably doesn’t want their “like” showing on the original post praising the film, too.
Let us know what you think of this new feature as soon as it becomes available to you. And remember that Reshare, just as Google Buzz, is still a work in progress. Therefore, users are encouraged to leave feedback.
