Google Buzz only launched four days ago but it’s already taking off in a big way. Google already made some changes to how Buzz works on Thursday but today the company has created a blog post highlighting some additional changes — including some ways to turn Buzz off altogether.

Here are some of the big changes that Google is making to buzz, that it plans to roll out over the next few days:

Auto-follow will become auto-suggest — Based on privacy concerns from users who aren’t happy with the current auto-follow structure, Google Buzz will instead prompt users with some suggestions of what users they want to follow, based on who they e-mail most. This is what that screen will look like.

Existing Buzz users will be able to review and confirm their followers via similar screen over the next few weeks.
Buzz will no longer connect to Google Reader or Picasa Web Albums automatically — Although only public items were shared via these two connect options, due to feedback from concerned users and confusion, Google Reader and Picasa Web Albums will have to be added manually to your Google Buzz profile just like Twitter or Flickr.
New Buzz tab in Gmail Settings — You can see what the Buzz tab looks like below, but it offers you a chance to decide to show or exclude who you follow on your public Google profile and gives you the option to hide Buzz from Gmail. You can also disable Buzz completely.

One other note — at the bottom of the page in Gmail, you can select a turn-off Buzz button. This will hide Buzz from your Gmail account, although you can turn it back on without losing your information.

Tags: gmail, google buzz, privacy

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