Google Acquires Deja.com Usenet Archive

The popular Google search engine and Web catalog, currently our favorite search site, has acquired Deja.com’s Usenet Discussion Service, the archive of every Usenet posting since 1995. That accounts for over 500 million messages – a terabyte of discussions. Back when it was called DejaNews, Deja.com initially just provided a Web-accessible archive of Usenet postings but caught portal fever and lost focus (and presumably a lot of money – eBay’s Half.com acquired Deja.com’s Precision Buying Service). Although it will take Google some time to develop the tools necessary to provide a good interface to all 500 million postings, they are making postings since August of 2000 available with a relatively sparse feature set. We’re pleased to see Google taking over this essential resource – few Internet companies providing useful services have come close to matching Google’s focus on usability, performance, and design restraint.