I have a gmail account that is just for Google Groups. Sign in, join group, sign out. Works like any normal mailing list after that, but with better search. Rea

I have a gmail account that is just for Google Groups. Sign in, join group, sign out. Works like any normal mailing list after that, but with better search. Read messages in Thunderbird. Keeps my list subscriptions out of my main email account as well. Two main reasons why people use it: 1, Google uses it (e.g., Go mailing lists). 2, historic reasons: it's a spiritual successor of sorts to Usenet. Google bought Dejanews in 2001, then merged it into Google Groups and gradually killed all the Usenet parts of the service. Aside from that, it's main competitor is GNU Mailman, which is self-hosted and doesn't have many real benefits for end users (other than not requiring a Google account).