9 ms·

Every year Google Groups still exists as a product I'm a little more astonished. It's been years and years since the company cared enough about it to put any ef

Every year Google Groups still exists as a product I'm a little more astonished. It's been years and years since the company cared enough about it to put any effort into it. The data degrades every year, it gets spammed, the Usenet portion of it makes no sense vs. the mailing list portion. And yet it persists.

Kwpolska 3y ago
I've read somewhere that Google extensively uses mailing lists internally. They’re probably using the same codebase for their internal mailing lists, and the storage costs effectively nothing to them.
- n0zmer 3y ago
  Googler here. You are correct. Internally google groups are the easiest way to create adhoc project groups and support / announce lists. We have everything from music related lists, to stuff like vim/emacs user groups
  - elijahciali 3y ago
    Not a Googler but I've personally been in a few groups for testing new features. I believe communication to testers has been revamped but pre-2020 I was in a few like gdd-profile-preview
  - AtlasBarfed 3y ago
    How about doing customer service with it? Google: nah. Honestly I shouldn't even suggest that, it will probably get google groups closed in a whim.
    - jmole 3y ago
      You want something like a ticket/bug tracking system for customer support, not an email group
      - ptman 3y ago
        https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/167430?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/167430?hl=en
    - intrasight 3y ago
      Google Groups is what I (non-Googler) used for support so I don't understand your comment.
  - gumby 3y ago
    > Internally google groups are the easiest way to create adhoc project groups..like vim/emacs user groups I have trouble imagining what a vim/emacs user group would be: either some sort of nonstop abusive flamewar or some kind of kumbaya group you can only join if you can prove you're on a dangerously high dose of lithium.
    - stonogo 3y ago
      Seems to me that "vim/emacs user groups" are wildly different from "vim/emacs user group".
      - gumby 3y ago
        Seems pretty clear to me: "vim/emacs user groups" describes a superset that includes the vicious fighting groups and the kumbaya groups, plus of course those that make emacs distros that are (shudder) more like vim, and perhaps even discussion of the other way around? Also groups that trade baking recipes in org-mode format plus vim macros so they can share the fun.
- placesalt 3y ago
  A piece of software I use has google groups as the main interaction point among users & between users and the dev. It works quite well.
rewmie 3y ago
> And yet it persists. That's a great point, and I would add that when Google launched Google Groups, there was this widespread concern that Google would abuse it to kill Usenet and force users to switch to its own walled garden. Since then, Google already tried and failed to launch a couple of social networks, but Usenet is still around.
tlarkworthy 3y ago
Google groups works fine for internal groups. It's used to group users for gsuite and Google cloud administration. Its an essential IAM building block. Public groups is just one aspect google groups, probably not the most important use case.

Kwpolska 3y ago

I've read somewhere that Google extensively uses mailing lists internally. They’re probably using the same codebase for their internal mailing lists, and the storage costs effectively nothing to them.

n0zmer 3y ago
Googler here. You are correct. Internally google groups are the easiest way to create adhoc project groups and support / announce lists. We have everything from music related lists, to stuff like vim/emacs user groups
- elijahciali 3y ago
  Not a Googler but I've personally been in a few groups for testing new features. I believe communication to testers has been revamped but pre-2020 I was in a few like gdd-profile-preview
- AtlasBarfed 3y ago
  How about doing customer service with it? Google: nah. Honestly I shouldn't even suggest that, it will probably get google groups closed in a whim.
  - jmole 3y ago
    You want something like a ticket/bug tracking system for customer support, not an email group
    - ptman 3y ago
      https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/167430?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/167430?hl=en
  - intrasight 3y ago
    Google Groups is what I (non-Googler) used for support so I don't understand your comment.
- gumby 3y ago
  > Internally google groups are the easiest way to create adhoc project groups..like vim/emacs user groups I have trouble imagining what a vim/emacs user group would be: either some sort of nonstop abusive flamewar or some kind of kumbaya group you can only join if you can prove you're on a dangerously high dose of lithium.
  - stonogo 3y ago
    Seems to me that "vim/emacs user groups" are wildly different from "vim/emacs user group".
    - gumby 3y ago
      Seems pretty clear to me: "vim/emacs user groups" describes a superset that includes the vicious fighting groups and the kumbaya groups, plus of course those that make emacs distros that are (shudder) more like vim, and perhaps even discussion of the other way around? Also groups that trade baking recipes in org-mode format plus vim macros so they can share the fun.
placesalt 3y ago
A piece of software I use has google groups as the main interaction point among users & between users and the dev. It works quite well.

rewmie 3y ago

> And yet it persists. That's a great point, and I would add that when Google launched Google Groups, there was this widespread concern that Google would abuse it to kill Usenet and force users to switch to its own walled garden. Since then, Google already tried and failed to launch a couple of social networks, but Usenet is still around.

tlarkworthy 3y ago

Google groups works fine for internal groups. It's used to group users for gsuite and Google cloud administration. Its an essential IAM building block. Public groups is just one aspect google groups, probably not the most important use case.