WHAT IS GOOGLE GROUPS?

Google Groups is a free service from Google where groups of people have discussions about common interests. Internet users can find discussion groups related to their interests and participate in threaded conversations, either through the Google Groups web interface, or by e-mail. They can also start new groups. Google Groups also includes an archive of Usenet newsgroup postings dating back to 1981 and supports reading and posting to Usenet groups. Users can also set up mailing list archives for e-mail lists that are hosted elsewhere.

Google has created several official help groups for some of its services, such as Gmail. In these groups, users can ask and answer questions about the relevant Google service. Each official group has a Google representative who occasionally responds to queries. Google representatives always have a blue G symbol in their nicknames.

Some official groups include:

Gmail Help Discussion: an official Gmail help group. Google Groups Guide: an official Google Groups help group. Blogger Help Group: an official Blogger help group. Google Talk Help Discuss: an official Google Talk help group. Google Base Help Discussion: an official Google Base help group.

Google Page Creator Discussion Group: an official Google Page Creator help group. Google Web Search Help: an official Google search help group. Google Webmaster Help: an official help group for webmasters. AdWords Help: an official Google Aords help group. Google Maps: an official Google Maps help group.

Google also uses Google Groups to host their Google Friends and Google Page Creator Updates mailing lists, which are announcement-only groups where only moderators can post.