Google Moderator is a Google service that uses crowdsourcing to rank user-submitted questions, suggestions and ideas. It was launched on September 25, 2008. The service allows the management of feedback from a large number of people, who can vote for the top questions that they think should be posed and ask their own. The service aims to ensure that every question is considered, lets the audience see others' questions, and helps the moderator of a team or event address the questions that the audience most cares about.
Google Moderator was developed by Google engineers Dave S. Young, Taliver Heath, and Colby Ranger in their 20% time, led by project manager Katie Jacobs Stanton.
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. The second series ran for just over a week and attracted 4.7 million votes from 100,000 people on 76,000 questions. In January 2009, Obama appointed Stanton to the newly created position of Director of Citizen Participation.