Google Moderator

Google Moderator
Type of site
Issue tracking system
OwnerGoogle
Created byDave S. Young, Ashley Cadd, Taliver Heath,[1][2] and Colby Ranger[1]
CommercialNo
RegistrationRequired
LaunchedSeptember 2008[1]
Current statusDiscontinued as of June 30, 2015
Content license
Proprietary

Google Moderator was a Google service that used crowdsourcing to rank user-submitted questions, suggestions and ideas. It was launched on September 25, 2008[1] and shut down on June 30, 2015.[3] The service allowed the management of feedback from a large number of people, who could vote for questions they thought should be posed from a pool of questions submitted by others or submit their own to be asked and voted on. The service aimed to ensure that every question was considered, let the audience see others' questions, and helped the moderator of a team or event address the questions that the audience most cared about.[4] The service was internally nicknamed Dory at Google, a reference to "the fish who asked questions all the time in Finding Nemo".[5]

Google Moderator was developed by Google engineers Dave S. Young, Taliver Heath,[1][2] and Colby Ranger[1] in their 20% time, led by project manager Katie Jacobs Stanton.[6][7]

In December 2008, Google Moderator was used by the President-elect Barack Obama's transition team in a public series called "Open for Questions", in which they answered questions from the general public. The first series ran for less than 48 hours and attracted 1 million votes from 20,000 people on 10,000 questions.[8][9] The second series ran for just over a week and attracted 4.7 million votes from 100,000 people on 76,000 questions.[9] In January 2009, Obama appointed Stanton to the newly created position of Director of Citizen Participation.

Google Moderator was shut down on June 30, 2015, because the usage did not meet Google's expectations.[3] The site remained available as read-only until August 15, 2015, at which time it closed completely. Content remained available for several years via Google's Takeout tool.

  1. ^ a b c d e f Michael Arrington (2008-09-25). "Use Google Moderator To Crowdsource Group Questions". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  2. ^ a b "Google's 20 Hottest Tools: Google Moderator". Bloomberg Businessweek. 2009-09-01. Archived from the original on October 5, 2009. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
  3. ^ a b "Moderator shutdown announcement". Google Docs. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  4. ^ Lai, Sarah (2008-09-28). "Google Launches Google Moderator For Presidential Debates | Threat Level from Wired.com". Blog.wired.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  5. ^ "Google Moderator (AKA Dory) Launches". 25 September 2008.
  6. ^ "Federal News Radio 1500 AM: What is Google Moderator?". Federalnewsradio.com. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  7. ^ Battelle, John (2006-03-20). "News: Google.Portal.Finance Launches - John Battelle's Searchblog". Battellemedia.com. Archived from the original on 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  8. ^ "This edition of Open for Questions comes to a close at 12:00 a.m." Change.gov. 2008-12-11. Archived from the original on 2014-02-25. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
  9. ^ a b "Open for Questions Round 2: Response | Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team". Change.gov. 2009-01-09. Archived from the original on 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2009-04-20.