Ego vs Ergo

Google recently implemented a preferences tab in GMail which allows users not only to hide Buzz, but to opt-out from it completely. Hurray!

My excitement was short-lived, though. Once the user clicks on the "Disable Google Buzz" link, they are met with this warning message:

I noticed that Google Reader is listed second, perhaps in response to this user's blog post [NSFW]. I was shocked to see the horribly ambiguous phrase "and other Google products."

The designers of this system failed to anticipate users' concerns when conceiving the way Buzz would operate, causing them to retrofit rather drastic changes to their operating model and user interface to accommodate their lack of foresight. Their opt-out mechanism is their second great failure, in two ways.

First, I find Google Buzz an utterly redundant and totally valueless product offering and I have no interest in using it. Some people may find it extremely useful; fair enough. I do, however, find many other Google products extremely useful: GMail, Google Talk, Wave, Reader, among others. Why, then, would Google tie their system together in such an all-or-nothing way? Why can I not opt-out of only one of their products and leave, say, my Google Reader account intact?

Second, the ambiguity of the phrase "and other Google products" is very worrysome. Which other Google products will I be opted out of? Will my Google Talk and Wave contact lists suddenly disappear? Will my Latitude friends all suddenly worry where I've disappeared to?

Google must really strive to improve their act. I hold this axiom when writing an academic article: you know your topic, you know what you mean but your reader does not; you must give the user enough information to understand. Similarly, Google's engineers know precisely which systems will be affected when I check that box and opt-out. I, as the user, disappointingly have no idea what will happen, and I can not make an intelligent decision in my best interests.

Do I really want to opt out of Buzz? Perhaps simply hiding it is good enough for me, since it will adversely impact my other services. Or, worse, is Google making it ambiguous on purpose to induce precisely this sort of anxiety in users in the hope that they won't click that opt-out link? I think that sounds a little paranoid, but leaving your user with even the hint that you're trying to pull one over on them does not engender confidence, something I would think any service provider would want to do with its user-base.