Sadly, many Google Groups are now spammer hangouts more than anything else. Widely available web access and programs that can automatically post to thousands of newsgroups in just a short while have destroyed much of original spirit and usefulness of Usenet groups. And parents need to know that on some sections of Usenet there are some very inappropriate topics that have been started over years, so they should exercise due caution in protecting their children from those sections.

For those who don't mind a bit of digging through virtual trash can, there are still many, many useful and active Google Groups, full of friendly, helpful people, so be sure to check out this often-overlooked resource.

When a visitor performs a site-flavored Google search, some results may display with a small graphic of colored balls. This graphic is an indication to searcher that Google determined result next to it was relevant to their search. This is an option that is set by webmaster in site-flavored search profile. Note that a user's browser must be relatively new (IE5 or higher, NS5 or higher, or Mozilla 1.4 or higher), and they must have Javascript enabled, in order to use site-flavored search.