Google Groups : Java Glossary

Google Groups is a service to let you read and post messages to the newsgroups using only your browser rather than a proper newsreader.

Disadvantages

• It is much slower than using a proper newsreader.
• Google does not track which messages you have already read.
• There are bugs in Google. When you quote other people’s posts, Google mangles them.
• Google encourages its users to casually create new newsgroups. That is not something a novice should do. It is properly done only by consensus with extensive discussion.
• Google gives its users the impression that the newsgroups are its proprietary invention. They are merely a tap into the global public newsgroups. When people refer to the newsgroups as Google Groups they get pelted with virtual vegetables for the hubris.
• Google’s login process is hopelessly buggy. It a matter of blind luck to be able to login successfully.
• People who use Google Groups are dismissed as know-nothing newbies.