Google restores Usenet archives

Google has flipped the switch on a fully restored Usenet service, replete with more than 700 million messages dating to 1981. The search service had been slowly renovating the Web-based newsgroup archives over the past year after it purchased the assets from Deja.com in February. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is making available various memorable topic discussions from the historic records, including the first mention of a compact disc in July 1982 and a first note on Microsoft in May 1981.