The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

google in trouble?

Anybody else have trouble with the google toolbar or searching groups.google this week? I keep getting sporadic timeouts.

I didn't realize how much I rely on old usenet posts to answer questions. Kinda scary that one company *owns* the posts.

Friday, April 23, 2004

Nobody "owns" them. You're quite free to collect them on your own if you want to. Just get you a high speed connection, a newsfeed, and start archiving. Let us know how it goes <grin>

Seriously though, there was a time a few years back when I literally sh*t my pants when DejaNews.com was shutting down. Thank <diety> that someone (Google.com) bought the archives -- although we're still in much the same boat. If Google goes down, we're all snookered again.

I often think to myself (several times a day) "What the hell did we used to do before Google?".

They could charge a fortune for their service, and I'd pay up. Maybe that's the plan. Get us all hooked on it first and then start charging ... $$$ PROFIT!

Sgt. Sausage
Friday, April 23, 2004

Yeah dude, that's why I put *owns* in "**".

So have you been having timeouts with google?

Friday, April 23, 2004

trouble searching groups or using the toolbar this week, that is.

Friday, April 23, 2004

Sgt.,

If google charges customers they will lose their customers forever. Customers will start using other search engines that are *good enough*..

x years later you are going to be saying the same thing about the then lastest search engine.

Prakash S
Friday, April 23, 2004

I don't know what to tell you about the newsgroups, but I've been having trouble too from my SBC account. search.yahoo.com has been good enough.

The Ted
Friday, April 23, 2004

Check your preferences - I've found that Google stopped remembering mine - I have to reset them every few days.

Philo

Philo
Friday, April 23, 2004

I think they're introducing new systems. I get the usual http://xxx/search? link and a new one every now & then of http://xxx/webhp?

Just in time for the IPO. What was that about if it ain't broke don't fix it?

Friday, April 23, 2004

I haven't noticed that problem but I'm a lot less happy with the results from google. They just arent' as good any more. Too many useless and worse, spam sites, in their search results.

About usenet. I happen to archive JUST one newsgroup. All posts go into a database and then I use that information to create questions and answers. I've set filters to ignore the spam that unfortunately is too prevalent in this newsgroup.

I personally think we might see a rise in very specialized search engines. I've seen a version which only searches for PHP solutions. I haven't noticed too many others, imdb.com would be one I guess. But I'm looking now for other search engines to use.

me
Sunday, April 25, 2004

I had a similar problem bit it turned out I had some damn spyware taking over my google references and doing a redirect.

Pault
Sunday, April 25, 2004