14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced that it's migrating its Help Forums to Google Groups. Those that have been involved with the Forums for longer may get a sense of deja vu since, a couple of years ago, Google migrated discussion groups from Google Groups into the, then new, Help Forums.
Ironic or not, Google now believes that Groups, which has gotten a revamp in recent months, is the best place for these discussions.
Most likely, not having to support and develop two rather similar platforms was a big argument for the move.
"Over the next several months, we'll be migrating our 250+ help forums in 20+ languages to the new Google Product Forums platform," Google announced.
"Built on the new Google Groups, Google Product Forums provide users with a fresh interface and robust features for asking questions and discussing our products," it said.
Google hopes that the migration will be rather painless and it's also boasting that there are several new features to welcome users to the new, old platform.
"The new platform brings some exciting new features to our forums. For example, you can now select between starting a discussion or asking a question, quickly indicate your own interest in a question that has been asked by voting 'Me too!,' and easily share a topic with your circles on Google+," Google explained.
The migration will take a few months to complete, but if you're a regular on any of the forums you might appreciate this heads up.
Google has been consolidating for the past few months. It's been closing down products that didn't work out and merging others into bigger projects. The idea is to have fewer teams working on fewer products.
This accentuated focus is all Larry Page's idea as he fights to cut down on bureaucracy and tighten up Google around a few central products and core ideas.