Remember when we reported that Google Groups seems to have seen an increase in visibility on Google Search, which led to a lot of junk and sometimes dangerous information appearing in Google search results. Bleeping Computer now reports that Google is ending support for Usenet groups in Google Groups to combat spam.
“Google has officially announced that it will no longer support Usenet groups on its Google Groups platform, a move attributed in part to the platform’s growing struggle with spam content. The upcoming changes will take effect on 22 February 2024, after which users will no longer be able to post, subscribe to, or view new Usenet content through Google Groups,” the report wrote.
Do you think it’s related to reports from the search community about Google Groups content spamming Google Search results?
Glenn Gabe posted about this at X yesterday and wrote: “Following the Google Groups spam problem? Interesting development -> Google Groups is ending support for Usenet to fight spam.”
The Google support document writes: “Starting February 22, 2024, you can no longer use Google Groups (at groups.google.com) to post content to Usenet groups, subscribe to Usenet groups, or view new Usenet content. You can continue to view and search. for to historical Usenet content posted before February 22, 2024 to Google Groups.”
Google added: “In recent years, legitimate activity in text-based Usenet groups has declined significantly as users have moved to more modern technologies and formats, such as social networks and web-based forums. Great some of the content being disseminated over Usenet today is sharing binary (non-text) files, which Google Groups does not support, as well as spam.”
Makes you wonder if this will fix some of those spam issues in Google Search?
Here is more information on this topic:
Learn more about the Google Groups list. Checking some of the queries that dropped and the content that was classified, I see a lot of deleted posts and some of those URLs de-indexed. So maybe a combination of “hidden gems” algorithm tweaks + changes to the site itself. Very interesting. pic.twitter.com/lXeb671Fwv
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 13, 2023
Are you tracking the Google Groups spam problem? Interesting development -> Google Groups is ending support for Usenet to combat spam
“Much of the content disseminated via Usenet today is binary (non-text) file sharing, which Google Groups does not support, as well as spam.” pic.twitter.com/mtfmHZmUDN
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 2, 2024
Discussion in the forum a X.
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