8 cool Google Labs projects spared the axe

Google Moderator

What is it: An online tool that lets you create a moderated discussion forum.

You come up with a discussion topic -- write a catchy, descriptive headline and short description. Participants interested in this discussion submit questions, and they can vote on which questions they want to see answered most by you (or others you have granted access to respond).

We're somewhat surprised that Google is keeping this service running, because its concept takes some explaining, and its appeal might be too much of a niche. In theory, we can imagine the usefulness of Google Moderator for your work if you need to set up a tech support or help forum, or to help organize a Q&A session about a project among your co-workers.