Just a quick note to archive the way Google Buzz is using the @ syntax. From “Google Buzz Tips“:
If you’d like to send a private message to someone, type @ and use Gmail’s autocomplete feature to find the email address of your contact.
In practice, you address other users by typing an @ symbol followed by their e-mail address, like @user@example.com. This is exactly what I proposed a while ago as an easy way to address any user on any Web application:
Afterthought question: can this microsyntax be expanded to @user@application so that we can finally address any user on any Web application easily. I’m thinking about that.
For now, you can only send messages to other Google Buzz users but I’d expect this syntax to be used to address users of other supported destinations (twitter et al).
6 Comments
One problem with that: When messaging someone on a Buzz using that notation, you are exposing that someone's email address to all your network or even to public if you opt to have a public profile.
I respect your opinion but I think that's a non-issue: Google as well as other applications can easily mask e-mail addresses on the presentation layer.
@sergio The email isn’t exposed, only the name is displayed.
I agree with you, it can be masked, but google didn't mask it. My comment was focused on the Google implementation while your post was on the concept itself.
What I've seen is that the name appears if that person is on your contact list. If it is not, the email gets exposed. MAybe they already solved this..
@sergio The email isn’t exposed, only the name is displayed.
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