GUBA makes Usenet search easy as Google

ChipGuy writes "Despite the growing popularity of p2p networks,Usenet is the real treasure trove of multimedia content including vintage cartoons, westerns and popular television shows. Nearly two terabytes of data is added everyday to Usenet. GUBA, a seven year old San Francisco company is making it easier to find the information on Usenet through the browser. Its like " Google for Usenet," says this report."

Advert?

[Tim C]

GUBA is a pay-for service, yet for some reason the summary neglects to mention this. Call me cynical, but when something as fundamental as that is missed out, I start thinking "advert".

If you need porn...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just consult HTGFP [htgfp.com] [htgfp.com] (How To Get Free Porn ebook).

All I need..

[LilGuy]

is NewZbin.

God bless the creators.

Key word: "MULTIMEDIA"

[schon]

And what is google groups exactly?

A way to search *text*

Usenet right on google, and it is searchable.

Except that it doesn't include pictures, music, and videos. Try searching google for alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 [google.com] and see what you get.

Although I have a hard time picturing how these guys are gonna stay alive once the MPAA/RIAA finds out about them.

Wow... more advertising on /.

[Daytona955i]

If you have an internet connection, you probably also already have access to newsgroups. Buy NewsRover and search 'till your heart's content. (And you don't need to pay $14.95/month to do it)

Since others will probably mention google groups, I'll just mention that google groups doesn't search for binaries whereas this is geared towards a binaries search. If this service was free I would probably use it. But it's not so I'll continue to use my new reader.

BugMeNot on GUBA

[JesseL]

I have never seen a site with so many bad usernames from bugmenot. They must be automatically removing them.

Smart. Real Smart.

[rudy_wayne]

Let's start a business that publicizes the terrabytes of warez on Usenet. Yeah, that's a real smart move.

Re:won't last

[DigitalRaptor]

Yeah, because Easynews and the hundreds of companies like them were shut down so fast for the exact same thing.

Oh, wait. They weren't.

And here I thought...

[sterno]

Funny me, I thought that google for usenet was Google [google.com].

Re:Google for usenet?

[eln]

As a long time connoisseur of porn^H^H^H^Hobscure films, I can tell you that Google Groups does not provide access to binaries.

Easynews Global Search

[Anonymous Coward]

http://members.easynews.com/global4/ [easynews.com] for the win.

Re:won't last

[Carraway]

Yeah, because Easynews and the hundreds of companies like them were shut down so fast for the exact same thing.

The difference here is GUBA is shouting from the rooftops that they're hosting copyrighted files. Easynews, Giganews, etc., all kept it relatively obscure, just saying "we index all of Usenet" which was understood by smart users and generally ignored by everyone else. Now all of the basic users who are just now figuring out how Bitorrent works are going to say, "Wha? I can get music and movies on Usenet?" and, frankly, where the basic users go, so goes the RIAA.

Re:How does this differ from other UseNet Archives

[SoCalChris]

The difference, according to this article [msn.com] is that they don't allow you to search for, or download MP3s or videos over 70 minutes.

I think I'll stick to EasyNews. It's cheaper, they don't log what I download, and they have an awesome web based search taht works well with FlashGot.

Also, after reading the linked article, their CEO sounds pretty clueless. They are blocking the MP3s because the RIAA has been so agressive about enforcing copyright, but will be leaving on TV shows because "the TV guys seem to understand the Internet..." I'm giving them a month or so before they're sued into oblivion.

Re:Google for usenet?

[marcop]

Have you tried newzbin [newzbin.com] or audiofind [audiofind.com]?

Free news servers

[Anonymous Coward]

Here: http://www.disenter.com/ [disenter.com]

Re:Google for usenet?

[stupidfoo]

binsearch.info [binsearch.info] kicks ass and is free, unlike newzbin

GUBA is "News"?!

[webmosher]

GUBA has been around for a long time by internet standards (1998 according to the WHOIS record). It has also been a pay site for as long as I can remember. I think they popped up about the time independent providers charging for Usenet hosting also appeared.

Did they change their interface? Is it faster? Why is this new?

There are other sites for finding recent Usenet binary postings. However, they all link to some level of intrinsically non-public binary information (just like GUBA, or BT for that matter). One would be better off looking for them on their own, rather than resourcing Slashdot for that information.

Re:How does this differ from other UseNet Archives

[harvardian]

From the article you linked:

Beginning this month, Guba will convert video files from Usenet into the format used by the iPod, known as H.264 .. and lets users stream small versions from its Web site.

Does EasyNews do that?

Re:All I need..

[Anonymous Coward]

Acctually, from what i understand, they do have an automated index of all files posted to the binary groups they follow. you can access this by searching for "files" rather then "posts"...

"posts" are just a listing of the files that logically belong together, and are compiled by the human editors of which you speak...

by searching for "files" you lose out on the nicely grouped posts, so you have to select the relavent files yourself, but you can find stuff that hasn't been "posted" by the editors yet...

Re:SSSHHH!!!

[gripped]

We sometimes hear of so called 'scene' topsites that well connected 'pirates' have access to.

Surely the commercial newsfeeds could in fact be regarded as 'Pay as you go' topsites. How they get left alone to profit from rampant copyright theft is beyond me.

Not that I care. I download films from my own ISP's newsserver, which is one of the few left in the uk to have a decent binary newsfeed.

I'm sure the only reason they keep it going is that its cheaper for them to supply as much of their customers warez requirements as possible, on their own backbone, than it is for everyone to be seeking the stuff on the wider net.
Still find it weird that its allowed to go on though

Re:Advert?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.binsearch.info/ [binsearch.info] is the best one around

Ah, the pains of non-mac users....

[ShyGuy91284]

At the risk of sounding like a salesman like the article, Unison on OS X is probably the greatest Newsgroup client by far. I've used clients on Windows, Linux, and OS X, and this is the only one I've found that takes the globs of files for a certain "file", and groups them. So you just see one item to download, and not a few hundred. Although you still have to wait for groups to download, this view is very similar to indexing services like Guba and newzbin in which you get a nzb file that gives a single thing to download a "file". I really don't get why others have not implemented a similar view in their clients.

Re:All videos available in Flash

[klui]

Just google for ffdshow and that will solve 99% of your problem with codecs.