Google Begins Fixing Usenet Archive, by Kevin Poulsen, Wired (Oct 8)
Google took over the Usenet archive of postings in 2001 and absorbed it into Google Groups, an early community / social service. Who uses it now? Turns out search has been broken for a long time, and Google Groups is like a ghost town.
"Google has pulled its Google Groups development team out of the basement broom closet and begun patching up its long-broken Usenet library, in response to our story Wednesday highlighting the company’s neglect of the 700 million post archive."
1) I hope Google fixes more than the Usenet section of Google Groups. There are problems with Google Groups as a mailing list and discussion center - perhaps because Google is developing other collaborative tools.
2) Why is this archive not with the Internet Archive? They would seem to be a more reliable and attentive custodian.
Posted by Gwen at October 12, 2009 02:32 PM