google groups

Google Groups enhances its ability to share

Those of you who use Google Groups will find a couple of improvements the next time you fire up the site.

Google Groups are essentially virtual forums that let you set up mailing lists, stay in touch with members of a real-life group, and discuss common interests with other people.

One new feature allows you to create a shared inbox that helps you better collaborate with others. An example cited in Monday's Gmail blog describes how to use the new inbox:

Imagine you and a few friends are organizing an event for your school and want a single e-mail … Read more

Google Hangouts launches as a standalone app

Google Hangouts (iOS|Android) brings the group video chat features you have in Google+ to your home screen with a standalone app, but it might be one too many ways to do the same thing.

Having the app on your home screen gives you immediate access to one-on-one and group video calls formerly found by going through a couple of menus in Google+. With Hangouts, you can have a video call with up to 10 people and you can choose who will be in the hangout through a list of your contacts or by using a search field. During your … Read more

Google Hangouts launches as a standalone app

Google Hangouts (iOS|Android) brings the group video chat features you have in Google+ to your home screen with a standalone app, but it might be one too many ways to do the same thing.

Having the app on your home screen gives you immediate access to one-on-one and group video calls formerly found by going through a couple of menus in Google+. With Hangouts, you can have a video call with up to 10 people and you can choose who will be in the hangout through a list of your contacts or by using a search field. During your … Read more

Google Groups gets a revamp

Google has spruced up Google Groups in a bid to make the service more user friendly.

Google Groups offers a wide variety of discussion forums where users can read and post messages on their favorite topics. But the current interface has been showing its age, so a revamp has been long overdue.

As one enhancement, Google has made it easier to search for and browse both groups and individual postings by entering a topic in a single search bar. Once users find a group they want to follow, they can now add it to a list of favorites easily accessible … Read more

Report: Groupon rejects Google's offers

Google's pursuit of red-hot social buying start-up Groupon may have come to an end.

Citing two sources familiar with the talks, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Groupon, a fellow resident of Chicago, has decided to go it alone, passing up an offer to be acquired by Google for between $5 billion and $6 billion. The report suggested Groupon hasn't made a final decision about whether it wants to pursue an initial public offering but might go down that road next year.

Talks had been reportedly hot and heavy between Groupon and Google, always looking to boost its … Read more

Google brings Groups to Google Apps Premier

Google is offering Groups to its enterprise Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers, the company announced late Tuesday.

As one of the search giant's "most widely used applications," the addition of Google Groups allows users to more effectively collaborate with others within the workplace.

According to Google, companies will be able to use Groups "as mailing lists, but they can also share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, videos and sites with groups, instead of many individual recipients." The app will allow those users to receive messages in their in-box or in the Groups forum view. … Read more

Google links Apps to Groups for quicker sharing

Google has linked its online applications suite with its Groups service, making it possible to share documents, sites, and calendars among defined groups of people.

Before the new functionality was launched Monday, Google Apps users wanting to share items had either to make them entirely public, or share them on a person-by-person basis.

The change means that, for example, a spreadsheet shared with a Google Group will be accessible immediately to anyone joining that group, or rendered inaccessible to those leaving the group.

"In my work, being able to communicate and collaborate with many groups of people is crucial … Read more

Webware 100 winner: Google Groups

Google Groups is Google's Web-based answer to e-mail discussion groups. It integrates forums, file sharing, group e-mailing, and collaborative document creation to take the discussion away from your e-mail client and put it in your browser.

There are thousands of groups on Google, and if you can't find what you're looking for you can start your own. If you've got a Google account, Google Groups will simply reuse some of that information to create a profile. Groups users can also custom tailor the information they share with others for each group they're in.

There have … Read more

GTD for students: The Class Connection

Getting things done service The Class Connection is nowhere near as exciting as The French Connection, but potentially useful for students looking to organize the whirlwind of planning and information sharing that getting a modern day education entails. The service combines calendaring, messaging, flash cards, and social networking to help students manage their work and daily schedules alone or with others. The hope is that students can become better organized, and if everyone in the class uses it, they'll have a centralized place to share files, notes, and study materials with one another.

The most useful part of the … Read more