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Re: [FYI] Google kauft Usenet-Archiv von Deja.com



On 13 Feb 2001, at 12:18, I wrote:

> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jo-13.02.01-000/
> 
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> 
> Google kauft Usenet-Archiv von Deja.com  


http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16851.html  

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Netizens blinded by 'half-assed' Google stunt 

By: Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco 

Posted: 13/02/2001 at 07:28 GMT  

[...]

In recent years Deja had tried to orientate the archive to being the 
centrepiece of a shopping channel, with a number of tacky manoeuvres 
such as inserting adverts into postings. But they'd never (almost, 
but not quite) managed to break the main Usenet archive overnight, 
which is effectively what Google has done. You'd almost think Google 
wants to be thought of as a bunch of come-lately, VC-flushed 
hooligans with no inkling of the history or the culture of the 
Internet.  

Something as simple as maintaining the Deja interface - Google 
acquired the software as part of the deal - while signalling a change 
of front-end and soliciting user input, could have avoided this PR 
disaster for Google.  

But perhaps something as valuable as Usenet - the words of ordinary 
Internet users - is never going to be safe in private hands. Why not 
return it to its roots? The Library of Congress could administer the 
archive, and ensure it was a properly distributed system farmed out 
to the best Universities, who could produce ever more cunning hackish 
search tools? That's not as much fun as shooting lasers at rockets, 
of course, but a lot cheaper.  

Google hadn't returned our calls at publication time. ®  

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