Google News Archive link is dead

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 12:45 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>
> Thanks to Bill, Jon, and Victor for responding. Google once had a
> specialized webpage front-end for the Google News Archive. It was
> located here:
>
> http://news.google.com/archivesearch
>
> If you type "Google News Archive" into the Google query slot then the
> top result points to the location given above. However, this link now
> redirects to another location that looks like a generic Google News
> search page.

This is part of a more general strategy Google has been pursuing
lately with its pages. There used to be a dedicated Dictionary page
at:

http://www.google.com/dictionary

Now gone:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/05/google-dictionary-slams-shut-forever-world-unsurprisingly-at-a/

But you can still get to Dictionary results, either by using the
"define:" operator before a keyword and clicking "More", or by
searching on a keyword in the usual way and selecting "More search
tools" from the left-hand column on the search results page. You can
get to the News Archive from the same menu.

> There is an option on the left side of the page to search in a custom
> range within the Google News Archive, but I do not see the histogram
> that was once bannered across the top of the page. Do any list members
> know if the front-end that uses a graphical display of matches is
> still available somewhere in the forest of links?

Well, you can click "Timeline" in that "More search tools" menu in the
left-hand column, but that's not exactly the same as the histogram
that was on the old News Archive page -- it includes various other
stuff, like web pages and Google Books results. I think that helpful
news-only display is gone now.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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