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This isn't a response from a Google employee, right?

My understanding is that there is some sort of volunteer programme for Google forums. (Side-note: Is there anything in it for the volunteers? How does Google convince them to do this?)

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I think she may be a Google employee. Google's product / support forums are always like this, it's terrible.

Pretty sure she's not. If you hover over the icon on her profile picture, it says "Expert - Google Products". I can't find an example, but as I recall they have something like "Google Employee" that leaves it in no doubt when it's an employee response.

I've never seen that, but maybe I've never seen an answer by an actual google employee. :/

getting even a canned response like that is luxury, when it came to google's support.

Google rewards crazy active contributors with early access to certain experimental features of their products and access to special events or something. For a taste check out the Google Maps app's contributions tab for info on the "Local Guide" programme. IMO the title is misleading as the only way to get to the higher tiers is to visit a lot of different places, not to provide detailed info on a handful.

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