Big news indeed. The Usenet archive portion of the financially-troubled Deja.com (see the May 14, 1999 Scout Report) has been bought by search-engine powerhouse Google. The purchase includes Deja.com's Usenet search technology, including the Usenet archive back to 1995, and the Deja.com trademarks, among other items. At present, the Beta service only contains messages back to August 2000, but Google has stated that they hope to have the remainder online within the next few months. At the site, users can search for messages by keyword or conduct an advanced search, which allows them to specify newsgroup, author, and subject, among other things. Search returns are in the typical Google format, but they offer links to the entire thread (helpfully presented in one window) and to all returns for each related newsgroup. Unfortunately, the Beta service does not support Web-based posting but has promised it in the near future, along with a date sorting feature.