Thursday, October 21, 2010

Google Groups losing more features

I got a mail from Google Groups regarding Google Groups update.

Hello,

Since you are an owner of at least one Google Groups group that uses the customized welcome message, pages or files, we are writing to inform you that we will no longer be supporting these features starting February 2011. We made this decision so that we can focus on improving the core functionalities of Google Groups -- mailing lists and forum discussions. Instead of these features, we encourage you to use products that are designed specifically for file storage and page creation, such as Google Docs and Google Sites.

For example, you can easily create your pages on Google Sites and share the site (http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=174623) with the members of your group. You can also store your files on the site by attaching files to pages (http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=90563) on the site. If you’re just looking for a place to upload your files so that your group members can download them, we suggest you try Google Docs. You can upload files (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50092) and share access with either a group (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66343) or an individual (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=86152), assigning either edit or download only access to the files.

Starting in January 2011, Groups will no longer allow the creation or editing of welcome messages, files and pages; the content will only be available for viewing and only existing files will be downloadable. If you would like to keep the content currently on the pages and files sections of your group, we highly encourage you to export and migrate it to another product. In February 2011, we will turn off these features, and you will no longer be able to access that content.

To make this move easier for you, we have enabled a one-click method for downloading a ZIP file containing your welcome message and all pages and files. Download these ZIP files by clicking "Download all pages" or "Download all files" on the pages and files homepages of your groups.

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