
Google Begins Fixing Usenet Archive  - nebula
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/usenet_fix/
======
tlrobinson
Google Group search was horribly broken for _months_ , across many or all
Google-hosted groups too, not just Usenet. It would only return results from
the previous few weeks.

It seems to have been fixed sometime in the last couple weeks.

~~~
est
And the spam filter is broken. Lots of user created group are marked as spam
and can not start or reply any topic. One of my group were marked as spam and
locked up _seconds_ after I just created it.

~~~
tlrobinson
Anyone else notice this amusing form of malware spam?

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=%22Where+can+I+find+an+online+anti-
virus%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)

(spam bot A asks for anti-virus software recommendations. spam bot B follows
up suggesting a link to some malware)

------
numair
_“It turns out there was a bug, a specific bug, that affected search within a
specific group,” Google spokeswoman Victoria Katsarou told wired.com late
Wednesday._

Based on my own Google Usenet searches this past year, this is total nonsense.
How are we ever supposed to trust them to have a monopoly on indexing the
world's out-of-print books (you _have_ read the settlement terms, haven't
you?) when they can't even be honest about their mistakes?

~~~
bdr
How is the statement is dishonest? My guess is that she meant "affected
searches that were limited by group" while you heard "affected searches within
this one particular group".

~~~
sfk
The quotation is simply a gigantic understatement. Usenet search is broken in
almost every possible way and she should have said so. First and foremost, I
rarely get results that are actually in the archive, but pages from the main
web search. Phrases from known existing posts do not return results any
longer. Several Usenet providers have acceptable Spam filters, but Google
apparently has none.

Google as the buyer of the Deja archive has a responsibility here and they
should live up to it (as they did up to around 2004).

------
steve19
The non-usenet part of Google Groups needs serious attention. The volume of
spam is ridiculous.

They have just purchased recaptcha and should make use of it.

~~~
uriel
Plus the search functionality is completely and absolutely broken.

------
peregrine
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=869681>

In reference to here.

------
uriel
About damned time, search in the whole Google Groups universe has been
terminally broken for at least a year.

