Deja News Research Service
DejaNews is an excellent tool for searching the Usenet news hierarchy. It
provides sophisticated search controls and an extensive archive of articles
that should make even Alta Vista blush.
Key Links
URL for Front Page:
http://www.dejanews.com/
URLs for Search Pages:
URL for Legal Page:
http://www.dejanews.com/dndn.html
URL for FAQ Page:
http://www.dejanews.com/help/dnfaq.html
URL for Help
Page: http://www.dejanews.com/help/dnhelp_index.html
URL for Staff Page:
http://www.dejanews.com/acknow.html
Home Organization: Deja
News Research Service
Organization
- Deja News is an exclusively searchable index of articles and information
posted to the Usenet since March, 1995.
- The search software is a custom software solution which accepts multiple
keywords, phrases, Complex Boolean, Proximity, and Wildcard searches in
any combination. Context operators control where in the article to search
for keyword matches: author, newsgroup, subject, or date.
- The Power Search
interface gives the user control over search parameters such as database
(1-3 months or since March 1995), length and format of the results page,
how the results are sorted, and whether to search for recent or older
articles.
- Users can construct a
Query Filter,
which restricts which newsgroups, dates, and authors will be returned
on subsequent searches.
- The database is surprisingly complete, containing articles from most
Usenet newsgroups, about 11,500 in all, excluding only certain groups
from the alt, soc, and talk hierarchies. The
database ranges back over a year, and they are currently extending their
coverage backwards and over many of the previously excluded groups.
- An author can prevent the indexing of a posted article by including the
following text in the article's header: X-No-Archive: Yes.
- Indexed information is not restricted by content, except within the
parameters established above.
Administration
- Gathering is performed automatically one or two times a day. Articles
posted to included Usenet newsgroups are automatically downloaded and
indexed with no work by the author.
- Most queries complete in 5-10 seconds.
- The index contains articles from about 11,500 newsgroups, ranging back
March 1995, and is updated frequently. Since the service returns the
matching articles, there are no such things as dead links.
- Each of the search pages is very simple and easy to use, with abundant
links to relevant help and tutorials. The graphics are small enough to
be useful without choking modem bandwidth.
- The help pages and search tutorials are a great way to learn just what
the search engine can do.
This collection is Copyright © 1995-6 by Matt Slot, but has been designed
for public use. Permission is hereby granted for unlimited print and electronic
redistribution. Your feedback is
appreciated.
Matt Slot *
fprefect@ambrosiasw.com *
3/24/96