Whats happened to Google?

Google Groups that is.

They don't even (usually) display the YEAR of a post, like we're not supposed to care?! You have to click SHOW OPTIONS to see it.

the 'old' groups.google.com is still availabe if you type it in

Ha! Apparently the beta test is over - the old url works again as of noon EST:

This went to the beta version earlier this morning, which is what started this thread.

Maybe the Slashdot comments had something to do with it, or perhaps a huge number of complaints in the individual newsgroups. But I don't see anyone at google sifting through tens of thousands of newsgroups to check for comments.

Just hope they quit "improving" it:)

Regards,

Mike Monett

I bet they check their e-mail & found LOTS this morning. They had my e-mail by 0730 that started with "Your new "beta" groups is a mess".

I see its back to the old style now - Yeaaaaaaa :)

Kim

[...]

The changeover was planned. Here is the announcement:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Google Groups Launch

Google Employee Dec 1, 8:58 pm show options

Today we are migrating the new beta version of Google Groups to replace the previous version. The "Groups" link at the top of the Google homepage will now go to

Thank you, all, for testing Google Groups while the product was on Google Labs and providing detailed feedback. Over the past few weeks we have rolled out several updates and changes to Google Groups, many based on the threads posted in this group. Most of the new changes can be found in the press release, but here are some of the new features:

- A new directory structure to find all Usenet groups - Advanced search - Sort by date in search results - Email address masking - New user interface

We also launched the Google Groups Help Center at

, where you can find answers to more of your questions and contact the support team.

Thank you again for your feedback and support. We look forward to following the continued discussion on Google Groups.

The Google Groups Team

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The beta was online for several hours.

Fortunately, they realized their mistake and went back to the old version.

Let's hope they buried the beta code with a proper ceremony:)

Best Wishes,

Mike Monett

"Robin" wrote

Use the advanced search page:

I mean, now, who here is among the hoi polloi?

-- Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics. Remove spaces etc. to reply: n o lindan at net com dot com psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

What makes you assume they changed it back due to complaints?

It went into place about 11:30pm EST on Wednesday (I forget the exact time); one minute it was the old and the next it was the new.

No announcement, and a rather odd time to changeover to something. Note the "beta groups" has been around for months, running in tandem with the old.

I assumed that it happened by accident, or perhaps something went out elsewhere so they had to jam it in as a temporary replacement. From time to time you do see odd glitching such as this at google.

There was definite glitch this morning, with google unable to retrieve messages that were in fact there, and then server errors that prevented posting. Then at 10:30am EST this morning, I get this full out message after trying to resend the message that a few minutes earlier had got a server error message: Technical Difficulties

Google Groups is experiencing technical difficulties at the moment. We're working to resolve the problem, but until we do, you won't be able to post new messages or change group or individual settings. We're sorry for the inconvenience and hope you'll try again later.

About an hour later, it was back to normal.

No, I think they were having problems, either that slipped the beta in place, or because the changeover did not go as planned. In either case they went back to normal within twelve hours.

Michael