With Google One, the company for the first time rolled out paid support for its service. Google, however, continues to maintain product forums answered by community members. Today, Top Contributors is being relaunched as the Google Product Experts program.
The point of forums is to surface cases and gather feedback for product teams. Across all product forums, there are 1,000 Top Contributors and Rising Stars that are considered the “most active and helpful members” of the community, helping “thousands of people every year by sharing their knowledge and helping others get the most out of Google products.”
From a small mailing list, these forums have evolved to cover 15 languages and over 50,000 threads per year. These days, we learn a lot from some of the cases surfaced on this platform, and constantly use it to gather feedback to pass on to our teams.
Google is now relaunching and rebranding Top Contributors to the Google Product Experts program. In terms of changes, the company notes that it is the “same community of experts.” The more questions answered and marked useful, the more status garnered.
The Product Experts program features three tiers, as well as a fourth one to note previous active contributors:
- Silver Product Expert: Newer members who are developing their product knowledge
- Gold Product Expert: Trusted members who are knowledgeable and active contributors
- Platinum Product Expert: Seasoned members who contribute beyond providing help through mentoring, creating content, and more
- Product Expert Alumni: Past members who are no longer active, but were previously recognized for their helpfulness
In addition to the badges, there is a 1-10 level system based on points for each post answered, rating, and more.
Entry-level Silver perks include access to a private community, product updates from Googlers, and direct feedback opportunities. At the Gold tier, users are invited to Hangouts, and become eligible for beta testing and events, with Platinum offering more of those latter opportunities.
These new badges will be rolled out in forums over the following days.
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