Can I restrict a Google Groups search to just Usenet?

Question

When doing date-range searches on Google Groups I find many wrong answers from non-Usenet sources. Is there a way to only search Usenet on Google Groups?

Answer 1

You might have luck searching from another search engine, such as http://www.binsearch.info/

Unfortunately it only goes back 900 days, but perhaps that's enough?

Answer 2

You might enjoy the old faithful advanced search:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_search

it wasn't apparently ported to the "new world" google groups, (or I can't find it) but the old groups is still there, behind the curtain.

...for now, at least. :/

It allows to search by date, it might be incredibily helpful in finding extremely old topics.

You don't get a "search-only-usenet" option, no, but you can search by usegroup hierarchy.

How? Well, for example try this search:

http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=query+%28+group:comp.%2A+OR+group:alt.%2A+OR+group:sci.%2A+%29

UPDATE: there, I forged an URL to restrict queries to all existing usenet hierarchies. (you might want to fine-tune that)

http://groups.google.com/search?q=your%5Fquery%5Fgoes%5Fhere%20%28%20group%3Anet%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Acomp%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Anews%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Asci%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Arec%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Asoc%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Atalk%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Amisc%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ahumanities%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Aaus%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Aba%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Aca%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Acan%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Acn%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Achi%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ade%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Aengland%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Afidonet%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Afr%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Afj%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Agnu%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ahawaii%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ahk%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ahp%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ait%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Amicrosoft%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Apl%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Atw%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Auk%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Ayale%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Aalt%2E%2A%20OR%20group%3Afree%2E%2A%20%29