[TUHS] Steve Bellovin recounts the history of USENET

[Kurt H Maier]

On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 03:49:58PM -0500, Henry Bent wrote:
> 
> Has anyone definitely proven that any of the contents of these files are
> not in the searchable Google Groups interface?  I don't really see any need
> to duplicate their efforts. 

That data is essentially unavailable to people without Google accounts.
Even back when it was, the search had degraded to the point where you
could paste explicit quotes from messages and those messages would not
be in the results page.

I wholeheartedly see a need to duplicate (and surpass) their efforts. The 
Deja News service was wonderful; Google's implementation is not.  Even if
someon were to convince them to improve it, they've demonstrated they're
not a good company to rely on for long-term availability of services
that are not active surveillance vehicles.

khm