TechJournal

Google Help Forums is introducing some improvements to their system today.  If you aren't aware, the Google Help Forum is an open forum for developers and users of Google products where ideas are exchanged and many problems are solved.  These forums, like any other, have an organic community that keeps it running.  Of course Google employees are also in that community.

Anyway, the improvements introduced today heavily utilize the new Google Profiles.  Changes include reputation, designation of "top contributors," standards-based profiles that extend across Google products and the web, and the ability for Google staff and top contributors to mark some questions as answered.

A few products -- AdWords, AdSense, Android Market, Google Apps, Google Chrome and most of our Polish products -- have already switched to this system. Over the next several months, we'll convert more product Help Forums, initially in English and then in other languages. [Official Google Blog]

Ironic though, the features Google has introduced today are already being used by a lot of open source forum platforms.  Google being the largest company in the web sometimes is really slow.  We can't blame them though since their help forums probably don't make them any moolah.  Besides, the most important thing about forums is just the discussion anyway, the rest are just icing. 

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