Responding to rather vocal criticism from much of the online community, Google is making adjustments to its two-day-old Google Buzz service to enhance, and enable users to more easily manage, privacy. Buzz, as it currently exists, was to be Google’s answer to Twitter and Facebook with a dash of FriendFeed thrown in, but so far it seems off to a somewhat rocky start — at least when it comes to user privacy concerns.

The changes, to be implemented later today, include:

• More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile
• Ability to block anyone who starts following you
• More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile

These changes will hopefully help users feel more comfortable with the service. I, for one, turned it off due to concerns that my contact list was being viewed by anyone who follows me, regardless if they are someone I know. With these new privacy features, let’s hope Google gets Buzz going in the right direction again.

Do you use Buzz? Or, is it something you’re not interested in? Let us know in the comments.

During a special event today at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA, the search giant unveiled its new Google Buzz approach to sharing and several new features designed to enhance its Gmail service and bring it more in line with other mainstream social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Google Buzz, which works inside the Gmail interface, includes the following features:

• Auto-following. We didn’t want users to have to peck out a totally new social graph. There has always been a giant social network under Gmail.

• Rich, fast sharing experience. Same nice Gmail UI and keyboard shortcuts. Special attention to media.

• Public and private sharing. We want things Google can index, but also private messages.

• Inbox integration. The inbox is the center for communication.

• Just the good stuff. Some much social data, we need to filter the noise.

• Go to google.com on your iPhone or Android phone web browser.

• New application for Buzz.

• Update to Google Maps for mobiles. Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian today

According to Google, they will be rolling out the starting today so keep an eye out. One question to consider, though, is if Google’s answer to social networking will actually be successful or not? As someone who uses Twitter and Facebook daily but has less time for something like Friendfeed (which Buzz is similar to) I wonder if users will take to these new features or not.

Also, if you’re interested, there’s a video produced by Google that explains Buzz a bit more after the jump.

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The internet gods have come up with a few impressive time-wasters over the past couple of years. From the birth of flash games to pictures of kittens to an endless supply of “Vampire vs. Zombie vs. Tree”-style games on Facebook, there are certainly many things to do to keep you away from actual work.

In that same vein comes The Akinator, a mind-reading website that will tell you exactly what character–be it film or TV–that you are currently thinking of. While the name isn’t all that impressive (sounds too much like a machine that turns you into a former American Idol), but the service will definitely impress you.

We’ve been passing this around the Flickcast offices, trying to stump the so-called “web genius” and we’ve yet to find a wrong answer. From characters like The Stay-Puft Marshmallow man to Captain Mal Reynolds, the web-app is definitely a fun time-waster, and will even impress you along the way.

Be sure to check out The Akinator, and let us know if you finally come across a discrepancy in the system.

There’s a lot of great writers in Hollywood and Aaron Sorkin is definitely one of them. Responsible for such great shows as Sports Night, The West Wing, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Sorkin has brought us some incredible television. While his last series, Studio 60 was unfortunately canceled in its first season it thankfully hasn’t deterred Sorkin from returning to television.

So what is Sorkin’s new series going to be about? Well, television seems like a natural choice, “It’s going to be what turns out to be the third in the trilogy of TV shows that take place behind the scenes of a TV show, but this will be a different kind of TV show. That’s all I can let out of the bag right now.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m fully on board for anything Sorkin is doing but do we need another behind the scenes television show? I say this only because I think part of the reason Studio 60 didn’t get any traction is because many TV viewers had a hard time relating to those involved in the entertainment industry. Even I, a Sorkin fanboy, found it difficult to care for actors who, while living a very indulgent lifestyle, waxed poetic about how hard their respective lives were. Furthermore, is Sorkin ready to go head-to-head against 30 Rock again, the show that ultimately beat out Studio 60 in the long run?

Alright, my little rant aside, there’s still some promise here. Sorkin himself states the show “will be different” so maybe he recognizes what went wrong with Studio 60 and will avoid those mistakes in the new show. Only time will tell given he didn’t provide any other details.

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Though they’ve been at war since the dawn of the Next-Gen gaming networks, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 have been a bit more visual with their dispute over the past few weeks. First, PlayStation announced they would also be supporting Netflix instant streaming, but only by way of a Blu-ray disc, which proved to be pretty awful.

Now, after Microsoft announced the integration of Twitter and Facebook in Xbox Live on Tuesday, Sony is again trying to get their hand on top of the bat, as they just announced yesterday’s 3.10 firmware update will also offer Facebook integration. From Joystiq.com:

Once firmware 3.10 is installed, the PS3 will be able to send updates to a user’s Facebook wall indicating which Trophies they’ve just unlocked in games and what they’ve recently purchased from the PSN’s PlayStation Store. Developers will have the ability to access Facebook functionality to send more detailed updates to the site from their games, and these options can (as was the case with Trophies) be patched into titles currently on shelves.

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As you have probably noticed, we here at the Flickcast are hugely excited about the upcoming DC Universe Online game headed to Playstation 3 and the PC. Our hands-on time with the game and the interviews we have gotten with the creators have both been impressive and have gotten our mouths’ watering for the game’s eventual release. Now, DC Universe Online has combined with Mass Animation to actually give the game’s fanbase a chance to be a part of its creation process.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and Mass Animation today announced the DC Universe™ Online (DCUO) Animation Contest. The DCUO Animation Contest is version 2.0 of the acclaimed Mass Animation Facebook® application and will give DC Comics fans, gamers and animators a chance to animate heroes and villains from the DC Universe Online game currently in development by Sony Online Entertainment, and to collaborate in creating a CGI trailer and in-game character animations. The DCUO/Mass Animation contest is scheduled to launch on December 7, 2009.

‘The DCUO/Mass Animation contest takes a part of the game out of the development studio and puts it in the hands of fans, an empowering opportunity for our community,’ said John Smedley, president of SOE. ‘Players will have a chance through qualified contest submissions to be involved with the game’s development at a deeper level than ever before by animating actions for in-game heroes and villains.’

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Announced at E3 2009 by everyone’s favorite geek goddess, Felicia Day, the arrival of popular social networking sites Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter to Xbox Live has been much anticipated by gamers and socialites alike. But these sites, as simple as they are to use, have their own style and reasons for being easy and fun to use. Did that ease of use translate well onto the Xbox? The Flickcast took a look, and here’s what we found.

Facebook

After the recent addition of the News and Live Feeds on the Facebook website, Facebook on the Xbox feels pretty refreshing. It comes with all the standard Facebook staples: your News Feed, your profile, your pictures, your friend’s pictures, etc. Each new update to the News Feed comes up in its own box, and within that box you have the option to like, comment, or read the comments of your friends, just like the website.

You can update your status, but that’s the only change you can make to your profile. Friend’s profiles show up in boxes similar to the news feed, but will just show their status, photos, and information. The only thing this version of Facebook seems to be missing is wall posts and the chat feature, both of which would be complicated on the Xbox and are.

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Like we reported the other day, it looks like XBox Live’s Twitter, Facebook and Zune functionality will be going live soon (Nov. 17th according to the supposed UK slip). Yesterday, on XBox community manager Larry “Major” Nelson’s website, he posted the link for the Preview Program which would allow any Xbox users chosen to take a sneak peek to test this new functionality.

Larry wrote:

“I am happy to announce that we’re doing an Xbox LIVE Update Preview program for upcoming features such as Zune, Facebook and Twitter. Much like we have done in the past , you’ll need to visit the Microsoft Connect site from this link and sign in with your Windows LIVE ID that is connected to your Xbox LIVE Gamertag.”

Once you do that, you need to fill out the “Xbox LIVE Update Preview Sign Up” survey in order to be considered for receiving the Preview System Update. We’re asking a few questions about where you live, your home network, ISP connection and a few other pieces of information. We are looking for a good cross-section of our members in order to get the best feedback we can.

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Since its announcement at E3 earlier this year, the social networking elite of XBox Live have anxiously been awaiting the release of Twitter and Facebook for their 360 consoles. As Felicia Day of “The Guild” and “Legend of Neil” fame announced, Twitter, Facebook and LastFM would all be integrated into the XBox 360 Dashboard. There, players would be able to update statuses, check out friends’ profiles and pictures and listen to music all while on their 360 if they have a Gold XBox Live account.

The wait has been long for some as there has, so far, not been a date announced for this service to begin. Plus, it was left out of the recent August Dashboard Update. But apparently we may have an actual date now, thanks to a leak on the UK XBox official website which listed November 17th as the date the service would go live. This was quickly taken down and replaced with the more open ended Autumn 2009 instead.

Of course, this lead to speculation on if Microsoft was waiting to announce the date at a later time to integrate it in to a larger marketing push, if the service was not fully ready to go live at the November date or if the date the service would go live would be the same in both the US, UK and the rest of the world.

So far, there’s no answer to these questions, but we’ll keep you posted on this as well as all other major video game news. And, hit us up on Twitter if you want to find out our XBox Gamertags.

Whether you understand Twitter or not, it’s hard to argue the phenomenal success of the social web site. For those few of you who don’t know, Twitter is an online service that allows you to follow other people’s message “stream,” sharing thoughts, comments and web links 140 characters at a time. It’s sort of like instant messaging but instead of isolated conversations you’re speaking to a crowd (although, you can send messages to individuals if you want).

While it has been around since 2006, Twitter really picked up mainstream momentum this year. Moving beyond your standard web service, the social tool has become a platform for communication. Corporations and consumers alike now broadcast everything from product sales to thoughts on the latest films. It’s that last point I want to focus on.

The L.A. Times ran an interesting story about the “Twitter Effect” on movies. That being, how talking about films on Twitter may effect moviegoers and influence their movie watching choices. Take the data at face value and Twitter sounds like it may not be the smart bomb of film criticism everyone thinks it is:

“OTX did an online survey of nearly 1,500 moviegoers in mid- September, the bulk of the sample being moviegoers from age 13 to 49, the key moviegoing demographic group. When asked what was the most influential source for word of mouth, most respondents picked “family and friends and coworkers,” which scored 40%, followed by Facebook (31%), MySpace (9%), IMDB (8%), with Twitter and online message boards bringing up the rear with 6% each.”

I completely disagree. Why? Simply put, the study is inherently flawed. OTX went and separated sites like Twitter and Facebook from the “family and friends and coworkers” category which fails to recognize the fact most of the information we get from those two social sites are from family and friends and coworkers. Take that into consideration and it stands to reason Twitter is making up a portion of that 40% belonging to the other category.

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