How I Buzz
I have been asked by a few people how I use Buzz. I created this document so that people can reference and use it to help them with Buzz. Below you will find screenshots and methods that I use to help me with Buzz. All important items are highlighted in red.
Global Hotkeys and Misc shortcuts
- Home = Takes me to the beginning of the line in a new post or comment
- End = Takes me to the end of the line in a new post or comment
- Up Arrow = Scrolls up through the page
- Down Arrow = Scrolls down through the page
- F5 – Refresh the page
- Ctrl + F5 = Hard Refresh
- Click the “Buzz” Link to clear all un-read items
- Midle Mouse Button (MMB) = Opens a link into a new tab
- Ctrl + Left Mouse Button (LMB) = Opens a link into a new tab
Built In Gmail Hotkeys using Gmail Labs Feature
- / = Takes me to the top of the page
- / = Takes me to the search box so that I can quickly do a search
- M = Mutes a Post
- Shift + L = Likes a post
- J = Goes to the previous Post
- K = Goes to the next post
- R = Replys to a post
- ? = Lists all of the hotkeys for Gmail and Buzz
- F = Allows me to send a post to my Evernote so that I can either read it later, save it because I find it important
HotKeys using Shortcut Manager
- Ctrl + Alt + b = create a new tab in my browser which takes me directly to Buzz
Image Map for all Hot Keys on the Keyboard

Gestures using Chrome Gestures
- Up = Goes to the top of the page
- Down = Create a new tab
- Left = Last page (back browser button)
- Right = Next page (next browser button)
Quick Links using Gmail Labs Feature
- author:Andrew Maxwell
- is:buzz
- @Andrew Maxwell
- commentor:Andrew Maxwell
- “Andrew Maxwell”
Filtering my Buzz posts – This idea was from Marc Thomas)
- Step 1: Look for the subject “Buzz:” (include the quotes)
- Step 2. Have it skip the inbox (this helps if you have a phone that uses push notifcation)
- Step 3. Apple a new label “Buzzz” (This must have 3 Z’s because you can not use “Buzz”)
- Step 4. Make sure you check the box to “Never send it to spam” (This eliminates any chances of missing a post)
Buzz in your Inbox
- Once I like a Buzz post that I was on it will get sent to my gmail Label “Buzzz” and if I want to come back to it again I will Star the item
- This lets me see if someone has commented after me in a post, sometimes they will mention my name with out @ replying properly
- This lets me see comments that people have created on my posts, even old posts that I haven’t seen for days or weeks
Organizing my Buzz Contacts
- Create a group called “Buzz” in your contacts
- Every time you follow a new person, go into your contacts, find their name
- Add the users email address
- Click save
- Add them to the group “Buzz”
How to @reply someone properly who is not in your contacts (Choice 1)
- Right click on a users name in a post or comment
- Copy Link address
- Type the ‘@’ symbol in a new post or comment
- Right click right after the @ symbol and paste in the copied URL
- Remove “http://www.google.com/profiles/” from the beginning of the pasted content
- Remove “#buzz” from the ending of the pasted comment
- Add “@gmail.com” right after the users, username
- Your done!
How to @reply someone properly who is not in your contacts (Choice 2)
- Midle Mouse Button (MMB) or Ctrl + Left Mouse Button (LMB) on a users name to open a link to their profile into a new tab
- Copy username from URL string
- Type the ‘@’ symbol in a new post or comment
- Paste user name right after the @ symbol
- Add “@gmail.com” right after the users, username
- Your done!
Sending a private message the easy way
- Create a new group in your contacts called “Private Buzz”
- Now add yourself only to that group
Now when you want to create a private post to someone you just include the “Private Buzz” group and then @ reply to them like you normally would. (This idea was from Michelle Marie)
Links in Evernote of people that I interact with the most
- http://www.google.com/profiles/had3nx#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/Joshua.A.Braun#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/punitsoni#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/ryanitlab#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/abbeyroadgirl#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/finejewels#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/ccuellar#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/svartling#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/nickwaye#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/josh.wills#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/tstrause#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/Jazzyflute#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/denislabel#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/lazarus.anderson#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/loftchris#buzz
- http://www.google.com/profiles/lslawrey#buzz
Sharing from Google Reader
- Click on your “Sharing Settings” located in the “People you follow” section on the left
- If you setup your contacts using the “Buzz” group as previously mentioned then this will be easy. Click the check box labeled “Buzz”
- When you read an article that you like, click the share button at the bottom left of the article
- If you want to add a comment to this article, then add it right after clicking the “Share” button. A new link will pop up called “Add Comment”. Click the link and it will create a comment on this share into Buzz.
Using Buzz to have people comment on my blog articles
- Go to your Buzz settings located in your Gmail settings. (A screen shot of mine is below)
- Go down to the “Your connect sites:” section
- Click on “View and Edit”
- If your profile has properly recognized your blog, then it will show it as an option to be added
- Click on the link at the button that says “Add”
- Done! Now when you post a new article to your blog, it will automatically post into Buzz
Here are Buzz related articles that I have written about since the launch of Buzz:
- http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/04/problems-with-google-buzz/
- http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/05/problems-with-google-buzz-mobile/
- http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/03/google-buzz-tips-tricks-and-how-tos/
- http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/04/how-to-save-google-buzz-posts-to-read-later/
- http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/03/the-proper-way-to-repost-on-google-buzz/
- http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/04/google-buzz-started-sloppy-but-working-hard-to-change/


![screen[3]](http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/screen3-300x185.png)
![screen[2]](http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/screen2-300x250.png)
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May 16th, 2010 at 6:00 am
How to @ reply someone (Choice 3):

1. Mouse over the person's name.
2. Look towards the bottom of your browser, you should see a small unobtrusive box pop up.
3. It looks like this "http://www.google.com/profiles/username#buzz"
4. insert the following into your post: @username @gmail.com (But without the spaces)
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 6:59 am
@Marc Thomas Thanks for the suggestion, I forgot about using the status bar.

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 6:59 am
I wonder if anyone is actually reading this lol.

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May 16th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
@Andrew Maxwell – Thanks so much! I just copied and pasted the whole thing into Evernote to read later.

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Anytime. I am gkad that someone looked at it :)

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
We did read it…stellar stuff.

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I've read it too ~ getting back to @ reply ~ when you mouse over the person's name and their profile address shows up in the bottom corner ~ how do you insert the user's name? When I move the mouse to try and copy it – it disappears – Do you mean remember the user name and retype it? Sorry to be a pain – this is still a messy way to @ reply :(

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Chris that is what Marc us referring to. It is not the best way but it does work well when you lose your right clicking ability

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
This is how I @ reply.

right click the user name and click "Save Link As"
Copy the name.
Close the window, no need to actually save the link.
Paste the name into the dialogue box and append with @gmail.com
And that's it, simple.
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Hey Tyler That is my prefer method too. It takes a little more effort but you don't have to leave Buzz at all for it.

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May 16th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
You inspired me to contribute something useful, @Andrew Maxwell. It's not much, but I created a JS bookmarklet that displays a pop-up graphic of the keyboard shortcuts for Buzz. You can always just type '?' to get a lightbox with a textual list of shortcuts, but if you prefer the quick graphic version, do the following:
Create a new bookmark in your browser's menu bar, and paste in the following JavaScript as the URL:
javascript:(function(){%20window.open('http://kosciak.blox.pl/resource/Google_Buzz_Cheat_Sheet.png','TimeTableTimer','status=no,directories=no,location=no,resizable=no,menubar=no,width=962,height=592,toolbar=no');%20})();
Whenever you click it, you'll get a pop-up with kosciak's Buzz keyboard diagram for easy reference.

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 16th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
thanks for the bookmarklet. I love the web. and how it makes people want to share and help out

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 19th, 2010 at 6:25 am
Also, an FYI for Mac users. The 'Home', 'Page Up', 'Page Down', and 'End' shortcuts are no longer labeled on new MacBook keyboards. But they're still there. Here are the universal shortcut keys:
Home Function – Left Arrow

End Function – Right Arrow
Page Up Function – Up Arrow
Page Down Function – Down Arrow
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 19th, 2010 at 6:29 am
Page Down Function – Down Arrow ~ that's my favourite ~ hold it down hard and scan, scan, scan.

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May 19th, 2010 at 6:32 am
@Josh Braun Whoa! Cool, I didn't know they still had that. I never really used those hot keys on my parents Windows machine, so I never really missed it on my Mac. But now that I am more into shortcuts, I can see those being really useful. Thanks!

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May 19th, 2010 at 6:35 am
@Marc Thomas—I don't use them either 90% of the time. But the other 10% they're invaluable. :)

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May 19th, 2010 at 6:43 am
This is really great Andrew. Just sent all to Evernote tagged with Buzz.

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May 19th, 2010 at 6:51 am
great stuff! thanks for posting!

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May 19th, 2010 at 7:03 am
@Andrew Maxwell When I go to my contacts and search for someone I follow on Buzz, I do see them however there isn't any email address listed. Example: when I searched you, I find your contact but I just have your profile information as a number not name. Other than going back to Buzz and copying your link address and then pasting your profile name and adding gmail.com at the end, is there another way to add email addresses from those I follow?

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 19th, 2010 at 7:19 am
@Brian Rule At this time there is no way to get around this. There is a Google Chrome extension which can be found here – http://goo.gl/CZDy that lets you easily @reply someone in a post, however this does not add them to your contacts which makes it not very useful for using on a mobile device or a computer that does not have the extension.

This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
May 19th, 2010 at 7:19 am
and a big thank you goes out to @Josh Braun for helping with the Mac shortcuts.

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May 19th, 2010 at 7:43 am
No worries. Glad to offer minutia where I can. :)

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May 19th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
@Josh Braun – I have never thought of such use of the cheatsheet! Brilliant!

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May 19th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
@Wojciech Pietrzok—Glad I could do something to make it closer to hand for more people. It was really useful to me. :)

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May 19th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Very nice. I have almost all the same procedures, but I don't use any keyboard shortcuts.

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