"My son’s real first and last name, with a number of additional, probably location based infos just one click away." Facebook is exactly the same, and yet nobody is complaining that they've forced real names public.

As for his problem here, he can just hide his following list, which is now a one-click option when he first joins Buzz. That's if his son even has a profile, which until he joins Buzz, he won't have.

Exactly. I don't understand why people are being hard on Google but give Facebook a free pass for doing pretty much the same thing. Granted, you have to put in your email credentials (something which scares me, but most Facebook users won't think twice) which gives Facebook permission scan your address book for 'friends'. They even retain email addresses that aren't tied to accounts so that if they are ever registered Facebook can tie them back to your account.

I don't give Facebook a free pass. I don't trust Facebook or have any interest in their services, so I don't have an account. I've had a Gmail account for years, and I'm being hard on Google precisely because it's "doing pretty much the same thing" as Facebook.

Is there some reason that 'blocking' a person wouldn't accomplish this? I keep seeing people request this, but within Google Profiles, there is a 'block' feature that you can apply to a given person. I admittedly haven't tested it, but I honestly can't imagine what else it might do.

OP is actually saying that he wants to be able to follow someone, but have them hidden from his list. His example is his son; he doesn't want to block his son, he wants to have their Google connection but not create a public list of all his nearest and dearest, with all the included information that Google provides.

But isn't it his son who decides what to share and with whom? (Or him through his son's account settings.) His son can block location information, or limit it to groups he controls, for example.