Jim,
I agree with your approach, but I also would add two comments in support of there being a problem.
1. Daniel Rehn knows this stuff inside-and-out. It is safe to rely on what he says, assuming the quotations are accurate.
2. The loss of Advanced Search of Google Groups was a big deal; I found that after it disappeared it became MUCH more difficult to do anything useful with historical USENET posts. It is a source I used quite a bit, before the change.
If we pursue the "query Google quietly" approach, I would be happy to be one of the SHOT members.
Henry

On 2/26/2015 11:44 AM, jcortada University of Minnesota wrote:

I strongly disagree with you, Al. That is definitely NOT the way to deal with this problem. First, you have no idea why there is a problem, what Google's intentions are, based on the article you are circulating. Second, Google executives have been supportive of the work and institutions relevant to the preservation of computing's history. I have personal, first hand knowledge of that. So why irritate the firm that is on your side?

If you are concerned, first we would need to validate what the article says, second we should query Google quietly about the matter to see if in fact they are evil to us, or, as I suspect is more the case, other issues have impinged on access that we are not aware of. Google decisions makers saying grace over the site might not even be aware of the discomfort they are creating for historians and therefore might be willing to help us out. Perhaps a couple of representatives of SHOT or SIGCIS should reach out to Google in a calm, collected manner?

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> wrote:

Time to complain LOUDLY to Google about this!

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/google-a-search-company-has-made-its-internet-archive-impossible-to-search

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James W. Cortada

Senior Research Fellow

Charles Babbage Institute

University of Minnesota

jcortada@umn.edu

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This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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Henry Lowood
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections; 
  Film & Media Collections
HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
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