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Google has fully integrated the past 20 years of Usenet archives into Google Groups, which now offers access to more than 800 million messages dating back to 1981. This is by far the most complete collection of Usenet articles ever assembled and a fascinating first-hand historical account.

The commonly held image of the American Web pioneer is that of a twenty-something, bespectacled computer geek hunched over his Unix box in the wee hours of the morning, surrounded by the detritus of heavily caffeinated drinks and junk food while deep in pursuit of worldwide information domination and IPO riches.

A discussion on website design with Jakob Nielsen, cofounder of the Fremont, Calif.-based consultancy Nielsen Norman Group, and Vincent Flanders, creator of WebPagesThatSuck.com. Nielsen, a respected usability expert, and Flanders, known for his sharp commentaries, agree that there are a lot of poorly designed sites on the Web. But the two experts don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to theories of how websites should look and feel and how they can stand out.

It’s hard not to be infatuated with e-mail. It’s fast, it’s cheap and today, it’s as common as triple lattes and body piercings. The sophisticated deal-maker, however, should not be so easily impressed. Like snail mail, phone calls and faxes, e-mail is just another way to communicate, and it has its own strengths and weaknesses, especially when used in negotiations.

Think you can learn about good Web design by stealing ideas from other people’s sites? Copyright law would have to disagree. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it may also be copyright infringement. And not just for written material, but also for artwork, music and even screen displays.

Web-site designers should understand their users’ way of thinking, introduce them to content they didn’t know they were looking for, and — most of all — keep them from using the search function, according to a report released on Monday by Web research firm User Interface Engineering.

The ultimate aim of the new generation of content management systems is generally the promotion of customer sales and satisfaction, along with an overall decrease in content management expenses. But what’s rotten at the heart of the planning and development of these systems is pretty much what cripples stand-alone software application development: before understanding the problem, organizations select a solution. Rather than assessing the organizational objectives and human goals, it is common for business process re-engineers to go out and buy a system of technologies that sparkles with the promise of precision and control, purporting to solve all problems, so long as they are generic.

Before you decide to jump in and start coding your own site in HTML, consider some of the pros and cons of taking on this project yourself versus outsourcing it to a Web design professional.

As companies march ahead with efforts to link employees through internal Web sites, they are learning a key design principle: If you want your intranet to take off, then take a hands-off approach. The case for intranet democracy.

As Tom Peters says in the May 1999 issue of Fast Company, “You are your projects.” If that’s the case, knowing your way around project management software and the basics of project management are essential to your career.