
Use Groups as mailing lists or forums, to collaborate with co-workers, and more!
Here's how to get started using the new version of Google Groups . ![]() In a Q&A forum, members of your user community can help each other solve problems and answer questions.
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Groups
Creating mailing list and discussion groups What can I do with Groups? Google Groups makes it easy for groups of people - such as project teams, departments, or classmates - to communicate and collaborate over topics of common interest. There are several types and purposes for groups. For example, a group can be an online forum for discussing a popular technology or answering questions about a product. You can send email to everyone in a group with one address. Or you can invite a group to an event or share documents with a group.
You can belong to lots of groups. Each group contains multiple topics. Topics are different discussions related to the group's subject. Topics in a group for an upcoming conference might be "What hotels have conference discounts?" or "Final session schedule." Each topic can contain multiple posts. Posts are the individual replies from within the topic. Types of Groups Groups can be configured in many different ways, depending on the group's purpose. You might use each group in a different way, depending on the group type. The most common types of groups are Email lists, Web and Q&A forums, and Collaborative Inboxes. Email List This type of group is like a mailing list-it contains the email addresses of its members but also has its own address. Using just the one email address for the group, you can:
With email lists, you might or might not use the online forum interface very much. You can use the forum interface to read and post messages, communicate with the group via email, or both. Some people communicate with the group via email and just use the forum interface occasionally to find join new groups, or as an archive of older messages in a group. Email list groups vs. Google Contact Groups You might be wondering how Email list groups differ from the contact groups you can create in your My Contacts list (click Contacts in Gmail). There are 2 main differences to keep in mind:
Collaborative Inboxes Use a Collaborative Inbox to manage and track queries from customers or co-workers. This is the perfect type of group for support organizations! In a Collaborative Inbox, team members can easily assign and track support tickets and other queries from customers or co-workers. Team members can:
Web and Q&A forums A web forum is similar to the online discussion forums, such as forums where frequent flyers discuss travel issues or where music lovers discuss the latest charts. A Q&A forum is used to resolve issues or questions within an online community. These two types of groups are similar, though a web forum is usually more focused on general discussions, while a Q&A forum is focused more on finding answers to questions.Forums allow authorized users to:
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