I saw the CNET piece on the newly upgraded Google groups and immediately checked it out.
I’d been talking recently with someone at Yahoo who was describing some of the concerns there about blogs and other tools hurting Yahoo Groups–we were agreeing that it was one of their top products
Now, Google’s launched its own groups product–and I want to play with it a little and see how it works so I set up a group everyone is invited to join and play with.
Beyond basic capabilities, I am particularly curious how Google might use groups to play with and launch:
A universal sign-in: I was able to *join* with my gmail log in (not the blogger or Orkut ID, yet)
Local advertising: On Yahoo, local interest groups such as Bay Area Blues are HUGE. Building a new groups tool seems like a great way for Google to drill down into that market.
Surround services: So Google gives users search, local search, email, social networking, personal expression(blogging) and group tools(this one), and news.
Sounds just like what we wanted to do at Netscape–provide users with
a suite of great products that met their every need and keep them going
through our service onto the net.
What are your predictions? Is this a Yahoo-killer?
Nothing like some new competition in the market to drive a little fun.
bonus links:
Search Engine Watch May 12 story
Google Groups offers Atom Feeds for Usenet news groups. (Via Dan Dickinson)
News links