Google Hacks 2Nd Edition [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 56. Go Deeper into Groups with Google Groups 2

Google Groups 2 merges Usenet news with mailing
lists .

Google Groups is a great way to research tech
problems or get help with game walkthroughs and other topics of geek
discussion. But the first version of Google Groups
doesn't for the most part index mailing list
archives; the 800-pound gorilla in that space is Yahoo! Groups, which
specializes in mailing lists (tens of thousands of them!). Google
might just be a challenger yet, however, with the release of Google
Groups 2.

Google Groups 2 (http://groups-beta.google.com) is in beta, as
you might suspect given the URLat least it is at the time of
this writing. That's why we're
covering it separately rather than simply doing away with the
previous bit on Google Groups.

As you can see in Figure 4-8, Google Groups 2
starts out with a subject index that looks a bit like Yahoo! Groups
(or Yahoo!, for that matter). Topics include Arts and Entertainment,
Business and Finance, and Computers. As you start browsing and
exploring Google Groups 2, you'll notice that it
consists of a combination of Usenet newsgroups (in standard Usenet
hierarchy:

alt , comp ,
news , etc.).

There are a couple of mailing lists in Google Groups 2 made to look like Usenet newsgroups: the obviously unofficial google.public.bork.bork.bork is an example. Just because it looks like a Usenet newsgroup, don't assume that it is.

Each newsgroup is accompanied by a brief description so that you
don't feel like you're fumbling
about in the dark. Email-based groups stand out ever so slightly:
while they are also accompanied by a brief description, they are not
listed by hierarchy and indicate how many people are subscribed to
the list.

At this point, Google Groups 2 is a new offering, so you won't find many mailing lists that have large numbers of members. Expect that to change over time.

Click on a group and you'll see a list of the latest
topics with excerpts on the left and older, though still active,
topic titles on the right. Click the "read more
>>" link associated with a topic to read
individual postings.

For longer discussions, you may want to see the messages in a
particular topic laid out in threads so that you can more easily
follow who was responding to whom. Click the "view
as tree" link just beneath the topic title. The
window splits into two frames: on the right is the same screen you
just saw, while on the left is a list of all the messages in the
discussion, arranged in a tree or threaded style. Click any message
in the tree to read its contents in the frame on the right.

4.15.1. Monitor Group Activity

A group's "About:"
description provides just enough information for you to decide
whether or not to read on, but there's a page of
information for each group that you just don't want
to miss. Click the "more about this
group" link next to the group's
description and you'll see a
bird's-eye view of the group (Figure 4-9):

Where in the Usenet hierarchy it fits (if it's a
newsgroup) Activity level Number of members (subscribers or guest members, presumably based on
postings) Messages per month, with month-by-month details Top posters this month and since the group began (or was picked up by
Google)

No matter how appealing the topic, a mailing list or newsgroup is
going to have a minimum amount of usefulness if
there's only a message or so posted each month.
Conversely, a mailing list that gets 500 messages a month may be too
busy for you to receive individual postings by email. You may well
decide to join the list, but read it through the Google Groups site.

There's also the option of subscribing to a public
group's messages and topics via Atom (http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=697&topic=36),
an XML-based syndication format. That way, you can keep tabs on a set
of groups alongside all those RSS feeds you're
reading.

Find an RSS/Atom feed reader to suit your needs and platform at http://www.atomenabled.org/everyone/atomenabled/index.php?c=5.

4.15.2. Search Group Messages

Confusingly enough, the Google Groups 2 home page has two search
boxes, both labeled Search Groups. At the time of this writing, they
both return the same results: a set of groups matching your search
criteria, followed by individual message results, as shown in Figure 4-10).

Google Groups 2 has an Advanced Search at http://groups-beta.google.com/advanced_search.
You'll notice that the advanced search here looks
much like the advanced search for the older Google Groups; however,
you cannot do the date searching that you can do with the Google
Groups Advanced Search. You also cannot, at least not at the time of
writing, search by language. Bear in mind that Google Groups 2 is
still in beta; I expect that there will eventually be at least as
much functionality for it as there is for the regular Google Groups.
In the meantime, you can take advantage of the existing search form,
and try out the same Google Groups Search syntax in Google Groups 2.

4.15.3. Sign In

Sign in (or sign up for a free Google account if
you've not already done so) and
you'll be able to subscribe to groups and create
your own. You'll find a "Sign
in" link at the top-right of the Google Groups 2
home page.

To subscribe to a group, simply click the "Subscribe
to this group" link associated with any group. As a
subscriber, you can receive no email at all and read messages on the
Web, a summary of the day's activities, or a single
daily digest of all messages. There is currently no option for
receiving individual messages as they are posted to your group.

Google Groups 2 and Gmail [Chapter 6] are a perfect combination, allowing you to read mailing lists and newsgroup messages in an email environment without cluttering up your home or work inbox.

Create a new group of your very own by clicking the
"Create a new group" link in the
sidebar on the left side of the Google Groups 2 home page.
You'll be guided through a two-step process:

Set up your group. Give it a name (e.g., Google
Hacks), email address (e.g.,
googlehacks@googlegroups.com), and description.
Decide whether it should be public (anyone can join, members can
post, and the archive is public), announcement only (the archive is
public, but only moderators can post), or restricted (membership is
invite-only and nothing appears in the directory or shows up in
search results).

Add members to your group, and Google Groups 2 will invite them by
email.

4.15.4. This Must Be the Future

It's not clear when Google is going to make this
version of Google Groups the dominant version; it could very well be
so by the time you read this. People are used to the old version, and
Version 2 still has some user interface issues to work through.

You're sure to see more and bigger mailing lists
appearing in the coming months. Email is still the killer app of the
Internet, and there's always room for another
discussion.