How to Search the comp.dsp Archives

Here, dspGuru explains how to search postings to comp.dsp (or other Usenet newsgroups).

Thank Goodness for Google

Several comp.dsp archives used to be available on the net, but Google now seems to be the only one left. (Evidently it's hard to make a buck selling Usenet blather. ;-)

DejaNews started archiving all of Usenet in 1995. DejaNews was a beautiful thing in its time, offering a free, fast, and powerful search capability into a vast, sticky mess. However, at some point DejaNews changed their name "Deja"; then their corporate pinheads forgot that their service was supposed to be about newsgroups. (Or maybe their IPO money just ran out. ;-)

The older posts were unavailable for a long time, starting about the same time that the other archives folded up, so they were unavailable, period. Loyal users of Usenet said:

:-(

Fortunately, Google acquired Deja's archive, and then put it back on the air. Google still doesn't present posts as nicely as DejaNews did in its prime, but the posts are available again, and the search works well. (And that's what really counts!)

Google provides two search interfaces, a basic search and an advanced search.

• The basic search is available at groups.google.com.
• The advanced search is much more…well…advanced. It has lots of useful options. Foremost of these is that you can limit your search to just comp.dsp.

Search Tips:

• You might want to memorize the Google's Usenet search URL. Here's the trick: just put "groups" in front of "google.com" instead of "www".
• If you want, you can enter an advanced search string into the basic search page if you know the secret code. Basically, quotation marks, "+", and "-" work as you would expect. Also, you can specify a newsgroup using "group:", e.g. "group:comp.dsp".
• If you use the "group:" syntax, you can even just enter your Usenet search into Google's normal web search. (It looks like the folks at Google have cleverly combined the web and Usenet into one giant pool of blather. ;-)

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