Greetings. With so many important Google-related issues piling up lately, a number of folks (you know who you are!) have suggested that a serious public forum for reasoned discussion of Google policy and operational topics would be useful. As the dominant player in the search industry and increasingly important in related fields, Google's influence on the rest of the industry, plus the Internet and world in general, cannot be underestimated.

Yelling at each other about such matters doesn't do us any good in the long run. On the other hand, some rational discussions could well be quite productive.

Never one to stand in the way of meaningful progress, and since the linear nature of my blog makes comments unwieldy there, I've gone the whole hog and am pleased to announce a public Google discussion forum, with a wide range of Google discussion topics (under the auspices of PFIR Forums) at:

http://www.pfir.org/google

In an effort to assure that this forum offers thoughtful discourse regarding Google and its effects, without personal attacks or sideshow antics, all submissions will be moderated (by yours truly).

To encourage wide participation, it is not necessary to register with the forum before reading or submitting messages (however, there are advantages to doing so, such as e-mail delivery of new postings and profile customization). Users may create new discussion category threads as appropriate.

Below is the initial list of Google discussion categories, all starting with a clean slate. Please spread the word, and let's try to make the forum a significant contribution to both understanding and dealing with a very important set of issues indeed.

I hope to see you over on the Google discussion forum.

== Initial Topics ==

• Search Issues: Discussions concerning Google policies and operations that affect Google search results, rankings, the manner in which Web sites are "spidered" by Google for content, search engine optimization (SEO), and related topics
• Gmail: Issues related to Google's "Gmail" service
• Advertising - AdSense, AdWords, etc.: Issues related to Google advertising platforms and services
• Privacy and Intellectual Property: Google privacy and intellectual property issues that are not specific to other Google discussion topic categories
• Book Search: Issues associated specifically with Google's "Book Search" service
• YouTube and Google Video: Policies and operational aspects of Google's YouTube service and Google Video
• Communications with Google: Positive or negative experiences related to communications/contacts with Google regarding any relevant issues, experiences, concerns, disputes, etc.
• Miscellaneous: All Google issues that do not currently fall into any of the other Google discussion categories

--Lauren--