Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource, Third Edition

CHAPTER 16 Forming Communities with Google Groups

In This Chapter

• The History of Google Groups

• Searching the Newsgroups

• Participating in Google Groups

• Creating Your Own Google Group

• The Bottom Line

Google Groups has an odd history. It started as an archive of Usenet newsgroup messages, past and present. But as Usenet began to fade in importance, Google rejigged Google Groups to feature user-created discussion groups so that any user could create a group around any given topic.

And that’s what Google Groups is today—a mixture of Usenet newsreader (because Usenet still exists, as does its archive of past postings) and web-based community. It’s an interesting mix.