Michael "Dog3" wrote:
> dsi1 > : in
> rec.food.cooking
>
>> I thought Google was the official sponsor of the Usenet archives. As
>> far as someone trying to keep Usenet alive, isn't Google Groups doing
>> exactly that?
>
> I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "official sponsor" but Google is by
> far the most extensive and complete archival service for Usenet. A lot of
> admins and other commercial sites archive Usenet posts but none compare to
> Google's massive storage capabilities. However, Usenet is a tiny little
> smidgen of the overall Google enterprise. Google's search engine is #1
> last I heard with Yahoo following as #2. Mega revenue is generated by the
> search engine itself. I don't know much about Google but I'm *guessing*
> Usenet is a small and disposable chunk of the business. We have it as long
> as they let us have it. In the old days we had Dejanews which sold out to
> Google.

The official sponsor was tongue-in-cheek but Google would probably
qualify as keeping Usenet afloat. My guess is that many if not most, of
the posters in Usenet forums will come in through Google's door. As it
goes, Google saw something worthwhile in Usenet and was willing to pay
for the archives. Google does not own Usenet, but you're probably right
that they can close the doorway to and from Usenet and my guess is that
it would probably be in their best interest to do so. Usenet will still
go on if this happens but as a smaller entity - more like it was in the
beginning. Academics, geeks, and nutcases? :-)

It's obvious that Google sees a future where computers don't need an
big, expensive, operating system - just a browser (Google's Chrome), a
connection, a free open-source OS (Google's Android), a search-engine
(Google), and on-line apps (Google.)


>
> Michael
>
>