Usenet past and present

Post date: Jul 02, 2011 10:59:31 AM

Usenet is an online bulletin board system that began at Duke University in 1979... Over the years, the number of newsgroups has grown into the thousands; they're hosted all over the world and cover every conceivable topic. Google Groups contains the world's most comprehensive archive of Usenet postings, dating back to 1981. Using Groups... you can search this archive the same way you'd search on the web.

That was a brief history of Usenet, by Google. Google is the present day "custodian" of many of the old Usenet groups, and apparently provides hosting for them on Google servers. I'm unsure if Google receives any funding for this or if it is another public service from Google that is not widely publicized.

Some Usenet groups are active right through the present day. They are NOT of historical interest only. I didn't realize that!

Usenet users can post messages to newsgroups that can be read (and responded to) by anyone who has access to the system through a newsreader. You can use Groups to post your own comments to an existing Usenet newsgroup. Using Groups, you won't need a newsreader [to participate in active Usenet groups].

For complete details, see documentation from Google on The Basics of Usenet. Google Groups is in the process of an upgrade. It will provide a way to continue to access past and present Usenet groups.