Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google's 20-Year Usenet Timeline

Posted by timothy on from the immemorial dept.

theRG writes "Google just released its 20-Year Usenet Timeline. Among the highlights: First Mac rumor, first 'me too' post, Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the Web, and Linus' announcement of Linux."

3 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. This is Bill Gates first post by br00tus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bill Gates posted to net.micro on July 22, 1983 from microsoft.uucp (from the account of Gordon Letwin, although he signs it as himself) talking about his crazy days at Harvard where he learned to do PEEKs and POKEs (cool, If I was using my Commodore-64 right now I'd do a POKE 53281,6 in honor of Bill)

  2. Re:My prediction for the near future. by Chatmag · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm basing that on several factors. Checking the Alexa rankings over the past few months, Google Groups have gone from about 7% of all Google users down to 1% as of a few moments ago. Granted, Alexa is not the most accurate measurement of a site, but it does give some indications as to overall popularity.

    Some of their own statistics show that most groups have low activity: Group-Society Activity High (167) Low (6712) Medium (137)

    All of the other groups show low activity as the largest numbers. They simply do not have the eyeballs hitting the groups.

    They do not show Adsense ads in groups, at least none that I've found. It's all paid for by ad revenue from other Google areas.

    The groups that are not moderated have degenerated into ad spam fests, driving off people interested in those groups topics.

    I think that when Alexa shows less than 1% of users, Google will decide it's no longer worth keeping.

    I do agree with you that Usenet can be useful for finding answers, I use a combination of Google search and Groups search. I still think Google will rethink Groups, either dumping it, or correcting the problems. (I'm leaning toward them dumping it).

    --
    Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
  3. Douglas Adams' post, forever the optimist. by cgenman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll try and post news here from time to time if it
    seems like it might interest people - for instance, it looks as if the HHGG
    movie is finally coming after the shelf after 10 years.

    This post was made in 1993.

    --
    The ______ Agenda