Google Groups

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Google Groups
Logo Google groups.png
Google Groups screenshot

Google Groups screenshot
Developer(s) Google
Written in Java[1]
Operating system Cross-platform (web-based application)
Type Newsgroups
electronic mailing lists
Website groups.google.com

Google Groups is a free service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups, including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. The service was started in 1995 as Deja News, and was transitioned to Google Groups after a February 2001 buyout.

Membership in Google Groups is free of charge and many groups are anonymous. Users can find discussion groups related to their interests and participate in threaded conversations, either through a web interface or by e-mail. They can also start new groups.[2] Google Groups also includes an archive of Usenet newsgroup postings dating back to 1981[3] and supports reading and posting to Usenet groups.[4] Users can also set up mailing list archives for e-mail lists that are hosted elsewhere.[5]

Although Google has removed or suppressed specific instances of mass abuse, it does not routinely monitor the groups service [6], this means that as well as genuine content, some groups also represent a historical archive of spam (and in some cases questionable content) from the period when they were archived.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Deja News

The Deja News logo as it appeared in 1997.

The Deja News Research Service was an archive of messages posted to Usenet discussion groups, started in March 1995 by Steve Madere in Austin, Texas. Its powerful search engine capabilities won the service acclaim, generated controversy, and significantly changed the perceived nature of online discussion.

While archives of Usenet discussions had been kept for as long as the medium existed, Deja News offered a novel combination of features. It was available to the general public, provided a simple World Wide Web user interface, allowed searches across all archived newsgroups, returned immediate results, and retained messages indefinitely. The search facilities transformed Usenet from a loosely organized and ephemeral communication tool into a valued information repository. The archive's relative permanence, combined with the ability to search messages by author, raised concerns about privacy and confirmed oft-repeated past admonishments that posters should be cautious in discussing themselves and others.[7]

While Madere was initially reluctant to remove archived material, protests from users and legal pressure led to the introduction of "nuking", a method for posters to permanently remove their own messages from search results. It already supported the use of an "X-No-Archive" message header, which if present would cause an article to be omitted from the archive. This did not prevent others from quoting the material in a later message and causing it to be stored. Copyright holders were also allowed to have material removed from the archive. According to Humphrey Marr of Deja News, copyright actions most frequently came from the Church of Scientology.[8]

[edit] Change of direction

The deja.com logo used from 1999.

The service was eventually expanded beyond search. My Deja News offered the ability to read Usenet in the traditional chronological, per-group manner, and to post new messages to the network. Deja Communities were private Internet forums offered primarily to businesses. In 1999 the site (now known as Deja.com) sharply changed direction and made its primary feature a shopping comparison service. During this transition, which involved relocation of the servers, many older messages in the Usenet archive became unavailable. By late 2000 the company, in financial distress, sold the shopping service to eBay, who incorporated the technology into their half.com service.

[edit] Google Groups

By 2001, the search service was shut down. In February 2001, Google acquired Deja News, and transitioned its assets to groups.google.com.[9] Users were then able to access these Usenet newsgroups through the new Google Groups interface.

By the end of 2001, the archive had been supplemented with other archived messages dating back to May 11, 1981.[10][11][12] These early posts from 1981–1991 were donated to Google by the University of Western Ontario, based on archives by Henry Spencer from the University of Toronto.[13] Shortly after, Google released a new version, which allowed users to create their own (non-Usenet) groups.

When AOL discontinued access to Usenet around 2005, it recommended Google Groups instead.[14]

In February 2006, Google modified the interface of Google Groups, adding profiles and post ratings.

In October 2010, Google announced it would be dropping support for welcome messages, pages, and files effective January 2011.[15][16]

In December 2010, Google rolled out a new UI preview with more GMail/Reader-like functionality.

In March 2012, Google completed the UI designing process and added the functionality of adding members directly to the group without any invitation.

In October 2012, The UI for Google Group removed the ability to report 'illegal' content directly.

[edit] Kinds of groups hosted by Google

Google provides two distinct kinds of groups: traditional Usenet groups, and non-Usenet groups that are more similar to mailing lists. The latter type is accessible only by web or by e-mail, not by NNTP. The Google Groups user interface and help messages do not use a distinct name for mailing-list style groups, referring to both styles of group as "Google Groups."[17]

Google recognizes the X-No-Archive header and displays messages containing it for only seven days, after which the article becomes no longer available to the public. Google also recognizes the "-- " Usenet signature delimiter, and removes the significant space at the end (thus, proper Usenet signatures can't be added to articles posted via Google Groups).

[edit] Group web pages

Group pages were introduced in the beta version of October 5, 2006 and discontinued in February 2011. Pages could be edited by group members or group managers and could store files for download. Versions of pages were kept in a similar way to a Wiki.

Group pages were promoted from beta status on January 24, 2007. On September 22, 2010 Google announced plans for turning off the group pages suggesting users to move their content to Google Docs or Google Sites. Starting in November 2010, the group pages became read-only (allowing only viewing/downloading existing content). In February 2011 they were turned-off completely.[18]

[edit] Official Google Groups

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: This reads like a help page directly from Google, and needs to be re-worked. Please help improve this section if you can. (October 2012)

Google has created several official help groups for some of its services, such as Gmail. In these groups, users can ask and answer questions about the relevant Google service. Each official group has a Google representative who occasionally responds to queries. Google representatives always have a blue G symbol in their nicknames.

Some official groups include:

In addition to the Groups, and Forums (see below), Google also now has Product Ideas for giving feedback for some of their products including the Google Groups New Preview UI:

From 2012

Google also uses Google Groups to host their Google Friends and Google Page Creator Updates mailing lists, which are announcement-only groups where only moderators can post.

There are also help forums, which appear to have different functionality from Google Groups:

[edit] New Style UI

From some point in 2010[citation needed] Google began to offer a new user interface (termed 'new-style'), in addition to the existing interface termed 'old-style', with a note on the old style interface stating that the old-style interface would be 'disappearing shortly'. Despite this claim, the old style interface remains a choice as of 2012.

The new-style interface as opposed to the 'paged-approach' of the old-style one, shows messages as a continuous listing with the most recent postings to a group at the top of the list. The new style-interface also suppresses the display of material which for a number of reasons has been 'flagged as abuse' by collapsing such posts. Whilst a number of options to report abuse exist, the option to report potentially illegal content, or links to illegal pornography appear to have been removed from the 'abuse flagging' in the new-style UI for some users[citation needed].


[edit] Criticism

[icon] This section requires expansion. (October 2012)


In 2006, it was claimed[by whom?] that Google had archived group which were used for the distribution of illegal content, In past statements on the issue[citation needed] Google has stated that it abides by the appropriate laws and regualtions of the jurisdictions it operates and has when properly informed removed obviously illegal content.[citation needed].

In 2011 Google (in relation to its Groups archive) was criticised in an article by e-week Canada[20] were it was claimed that Google had refused to remove troll content which had falsely claimed that a named individual was involved in paedophilia. The target of the trolling claims in the article that Google refused to remove content, Google's response being "Register websites, write good articles about yourself, and buy some advertising from us, which will improve your ranking.".[20]

Slashdot and Wired contributors have criticized Google for its inattention to a search engine for Google Groups, leaving many older postings virtually inaccessible.[21][22][23]

[edit] Blocking

Google Groups has been blocked in Turkey since April 10, 2008 by the order of a court in Turkey.[24] According to The Guardian, the court banned Google Groups following a libel complaint by Adnan Oktar against the service. Google Groups was the first of several websites to be blocked by the Turkish Government in rapid succession solely for including material which allegedly offended Islam.[25]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Google groups utilise Java
  2. ^ "How do I create my own group?". Google Groups Help Center. http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46368. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  3. ^ "How far back does Google's Usenet archive go?". Google Groups Help Center. http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46439. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  4. ^ "What is a Usenet Newsgroup?". Google Groups Help Center. http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46854. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  5. ^ "Can I use Google Groups to archive another mailing list?". Google Groups Help Center. http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46387. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  6. ^ http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/.
  7. ^ Chuq Von Rospach. A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community. Usenet introductory document posted regularly until 1999.
  8. ^ George Lawton (January 1997). Internet archives: Who's doing it? And can you protect your privacy?. SunWorld.
  9. ^ "Google Acquires Usenet Discussion Service and Significant Assets from Deja.com". Google. February 12, 2001. http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html.
  10. ^ "20 Year Archive on Google Groups". Google. December 11, 2001. http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html.
  11. ^ "Full Usenet archive now available". Pandia. April 29, 2001. http://www.pandia.com/searchworld/2001-26-usenet.html.
  12. ^ "Digital history saved". BBC News Online. December 14, 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1709527.stm.
  13. ^ Katharine Mieszkowski (January 7, 2002). "The Geeks Who Saved Usenet". Salon (website). http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/01/07/saving_usenet/index.html.
  14. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/25/aol_cutsoff_newsgroups/
  15. ^ "Google Groups drops support for pages". http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/10/google-groups-drops-support-for-pages.html.
  16. ^ "Notice about Pages and Files". Google. Sept. 22, 2010. http://groups-announcements.blogspot.com/2010/09/notice-about-pages-and-files.html?hl=en. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  17. ^ "What's the difference between a Usenet newsgroup and a Google Group?". Google Groups Help Center. http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46461&topic=9244. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  18. ^ "Notice about Pages and Files". September 22, 2010. http://groups-announcements.blogspot.com/2010/09/notice-about-pages-and-files.html. Retrieved September 22, 2010.
  19. ^ The Google Groups Team (August 2, 2010). "Discussions > Groups Announcements and Alerts > Important Message About This Forum". Google Groups Help Forum. http://groups.google.com/group/groupsknownissues/browse_thread/thread/beaa1543ecc87df3. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  20. ^ a b http://infoexecutive.itincanada.ca/index.php?cid=78&id=13954&np=3
  21. ^ "How to Search Today's Usenet For Programming Information". Slashdot. November 9, 2008. http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/08/11/09/2029206.shtml. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  22. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (October 7, 2009). "Google’s Abandoned Library of 700 Million Titles". Wired. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/usenet. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  23. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (October 8, 2009). "Google Begins Fixing Usenet Archive". Wired. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/usenet_fix/. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  24. ^ "Turkey bans Google Groups". Today's Zaman. April 12, 2008. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=138847. Retrieved August 10, 2010.[dead link]
  25. ^ Butt, Riazat (September 18, 2008). "Turkish court bans Richard Dawkins website". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/18/turkey. Retrieved May 3, 2010.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Google_Groups&oldid=521079751"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages