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How Google Saved USENET

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the pouring-amber-on-ants dept.

Masem writes: "Salon has a well-written article article on the recent revival of much of the USENET archives from '81 to '90 by Google. It mentions that much of the recovery was thanks to years of work in transferring data off 140-some 10" magnetic tapes (~120megs of data) to a more conventional format in order to recover much of the early posts. Even a reference to the previous Slashdot story is made." Update: 01/07 23:52 GMT by T : btempleton adds: "O'Reilly Network asked me to do an article on similar themes and rememberances of USENET history." Thanks, Brad.

3 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Didn't search USENET as much before Google. by MisterBlister · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Deja, aka DejaNews, which is now, of course, defunct (having sold the usenet archives to Google) should also get some credit.

    The Usenet archives are more useful than ever now, but they were still a really useful resource pre-Google.

  2. Re:The One Engine by RestiffBard · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Sir, I have to say that is a truly brilliant post. You have too much time on your hands.

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    - /* dead coders leave no comments */
  3. Re:groups.google.com always has the answers... by damiam · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Google makes money by selling text-based ads and by liscensing its search technology.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.