Remember Deja News? Sure you do! They turned into Deja, which tried to be a strange brew of Usenet archives and Epinions. Google purchased the Usenet archives earlier this year and spit out a rather incomplete rendition of Deja called Google Groups. People complained, since the valuable Usenet archives dating back to 1995 were all gone. Google promised something better was coming.
Were they ever right! Google Groups is now up in Beta form, but it’s rather polished. The entire archive is back and, thanks to Google’s super easy searching capabilities, I was able to find my very first Usenet post ever. It’s from April 17, 1995 – back when I was still using AOL! – and I was just trying to sell some R.E.M. merchandise. I even remember writing this stuff.
Google Groups brings back fond memories, and yet it can dig up things you thought were left behind. Welcome to the never-ending archive, folks. -pm
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