[ghaff]

Google's original mission statement from 1998 was to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Things like Usenet archives are clearly part of that.

That is still apparently their mission statement but I agree the reality seems more along the lines of "deliver the best search results for users' immediate needs" [while making as much money from that as humanly possible]

[macspoofing]

It's sad. The original mission implied nothing was going to get lost and abandoned. So much for that.