How to construct a Google Groups non-redundant URL for reference purposes

Here is how I just now figured out how to construct a non-redundant Google Groups URL to a Usenet post from years ago. If you have a better method, please share, as I post this merely to share to help others use Usenet as a reference.

I just did this today for the alt-home-repair newsgroup, so all I'm doing is documenting the steps for others to be able to leverage in the future.

  1. I needed to look up an old URL on how to wind garage door torsion springs so that I could cut and paste a short Google URL as a reference.

  1. I knew the original thread was posted to alt.home.repair by me on Usenet years ago, so I searched using this easily remembered URL.
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  2. That easily remembered URL, of course, takes you to the canonical GG search URL which is the one to use (but it's harder to remember):
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  1. My search was "Danny garage torsion" which came up with four thread titles: a. Lessons learned installing a torsion spring in a typical residential garage b. Update to the "lessons learned" garage door torsion spring DIY thread (new lessons learned) c. Garage door torsion spring relocation project (Status = Not going well) d. Garage door torsion spring broken ... and ... I have no questions! :)

  2. The initial URLs are messy because they include redundant terms: a.
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    b.
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    c.
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    d.
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  1. Notice the unique ultimate characters: a. LASTID=BRHYK3X71BAJ b. LASTID=8Ff3HsrmASEJ c. LASTID=Hk0mfwDsQooJ d. LASTID=I0TP541gGk4J

  2. Now you need a normal short URL, where a "normal" URL can be gotten simply by looking up the *latest* page and choosing any URL found on that latest page as of the current date.
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The first URL (at the moment) uses this non-redundant syntax:

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  1. You'd think you can just cut the *last* argument out, to reconstruct the desired non-redundant Google URLs (but you can't). So these won't work:

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a.

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b.
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c.
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d.
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But that doesn't work.

  1. What you can do though, is cut TWO ID sections out: a. LAST2IDs=738YR8CPsLI/BRHYK3X71BAJ b. LAST2IDs=AGrGZc4i-RA/8Ff3HsrmASEJ c. LAST2IDs=ifuMBLOoGXY/Hk0mfwDsQooJ d. LAST2IDs=s0zBJNaT89Q/I0TP541gGk4J

  1. Using those two sections, you reconstruct a Google URL:

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+ a.
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b.
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c.
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d.
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  1. When you go to those four URLs, you get *new* Google URLs for each: a.
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    b.
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    c.
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    d.
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  1. So, one way to reconstruct a non-redundant Google Groups URL is to put these three syntactical items together: A. The base URL
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    B. The newsgroup (alt.home.repair) C. The penultimate ID

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+ alt.home.repair/ + PENULTIMATEID

Reply to
Danny D.
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To help others, here is a simpler method to obtain a reference link:

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Both methods start from this easy to remember search start point:

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That takes us to the standard Google "Groups" (also Usenet) search:

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Which results in the following four long "message-style" URLs:

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The suggested simple method results in these "message-style" references:

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The suggested manual method results in these "topic-style" references:

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Both results seem functionally equivalent in my initial test just now.

Reply to
Danny D.

Any good method to go from Message-ID to a Google Groups link?

Reply to
Snit

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