Continuing access to the Usenet newsgroup archive would be reason enough to celebrate Google Groups. The fact that Google Groups also lets you create your own discussion groups is just icing on the proverbial cake. (Notice that it’s always the cake that’s proverbial, and not the icing?) In any case, if you have a topic that especially interests you, Google Groups is the place to find others who share your interest. I particularly like the ability to receive message summaries and digests via email so that I don’t have to visit the actual site if I don’t particularly want to—after I’ve subscribed to all my favorite groups, of course!