Google Groups is a feature of the Google search engine that lets you browse through USENET, a collection of thousands upon thousands of discussion forums in virtually every topic imaginable. If it's a TV show, game, computer program, sports team, branch of science, or whatever, chances are there is a USENET group about the subject.

While USENET is arguably not as popular as it once was, Google Groups provides the ability to search through a huge number of archived and current information (as of April 17, 2005, they claim they have an archive of one billion messages).

Besides browsing through USENET, you can also browse and post to specialized groups created by other Google members. This requires you to sign-in for an account. Just searching through USENET, however, does not.

To read these discussions, search for information, or optionally create your own group, you can access Google Groups via the following web address:

Google Groups - http://groups.google.com/.

To search through the USENET archive and Google Groups, just enter in your search criteria as you would with the normal Google search engine and click the "Search Groups" button.

Note that due to the unmoderated and unfiltered nature of USENET discussions, you may find certain topics and discussions displeasing. Though a wealth of useful information can be found via Google Groups, there is plenty of spam, flame wars (virtual fights), and debates on subjects by those whose viewpoints may radically differ than yours.

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Return to the Google Groups page.