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LONDON, Dec 12: A virtual treasure chest of over 700 million message postings, chronicling everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to Pee Wee Herman jokes, has been restored on the Internet, much to the delight of Net fans.
Popular Internet search service Google acquired the UseNet discussion group archive last February when it purchased the now defunct DejaNews.com.
The earliest message postings had been taken down by then, triggering consternation among nostalgic Net heads.
The privately held Google on Tuesday made good on its promise, bringing back an essential voice of the Internet’s early years. Rants, reviews, and “new” discoveries in all their unedited glory have been restored, dating back to 1981.
“Google’s UseNet archive is a veritable international treasure,” one user wrote on Wednesday. “I really don’t think I’d want to suffer another interruption of access to it.”
The restored postings run the gamut from the odd to the touching. For example, in January, 1986 and November, 1989 users posted timely personal accounts of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger crash and the fall of the Berlin wall, respectively.
“As we sit here in West Berlin this morning, we are just discussing the news about the wall - its open and may soon be no more!!!!”, one dispatch reads.
HOW MUCH?: Over the years, UseNet has attracted the good, bad and ugly, including comment and debate on every facet of current events and popular culture.
Originally the domain of academics and computer enthusiasts, the discussion group, which predates the dawn of the World Wide Web by a dozen years, has evolved into a global forum growing in popularity alongside the Internet itself.
The earliest message is dated May 12, 1981, four years before the birth of America Online, the world’s largest Internet service provider. It’s an obscure product review for a Versatec V-80 electrostatic plotter, which carries an $8,500 price tag.
A few weeks later, the first reference to Microsoft appears in the form of a tame synopsis of a BYTE magazine article describing the company’s newest Unix software launch.—Reuters
