A New Beta (via Google Labs): Google Groups 2. You’ve got to hand it to them, they’re always making news. Google has joined Yahoo (and continues to become a portal) with a new “groups” service (beta, of course).
What’s New?
Instead of only offering access to Usenet groups (Alt., Rec. etc.), Google Groups now allows you to create your own e-mail based group. This is a service that Yahoo has offered for a long time.
* Users can create, join, and search email-based mailing lists (registration required). You don’t need to register to search and read group postings.
* Google promises that posts will be added within 10 seconds of posting and be searchable within 10 minutes
* Users can track and mark favorite topics using the “My Groups” feature and view postings in a variety of ways including by message summary, title, or conversation view
* Access Usenet archive remains available
* You can compare Google Groups features to Yahoo Groups offerings here. At the moment, it looks as if Yahoo Groups offers more features.
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Gary Price is the Editor of ResourceShelf and a librarian, information research consultant, and writer based in suburban Washington D.C.
