A New Kind of Book Publishing

The Future of Books. Jason Epstein. Technology Review. January 2005.
Veteran publisher Epstein, who was instrumental in the creation of Doubleday's paperback Anchor Books series, comments on the economics of book selling and recommends a new kind of print-on-demand service.

How Blogging has Changed the Business World

Why There's No Escaping the Blog ("10 Tech Trends"). David Kirkpatrick and Daniel Roth. Fortune. January 10, 2005.
This article describes the influence blogs have had in the areas of media and business. Corporations have had mixed results in trying to manage the blogosphere to their own advantage.

Internet Use Increasing Among Home Users

Home Web Use by Country, November 2004. Rob McGann. ClickZ. December 28, 2004.
According to Nielsen Ratings, Internet use at home grew 1.5 percent during the months of August-November in 11 selected countries.

Antispam Law May Have Aided Spammers

CAN-SPAM Law Seen as Ineffective. Grant Gross. Computerworld. Deember 27, 2004.
Observers have documented an increase in spam since the law was enacted a year ago.

More on Google and Library Digitization

Google’s Library Project: Questions, Questions, Questions. Barbara Quint. Information Today. December 27, 2004.
In the follow-up to her December 20 NewsBreaks column, Quint provides additional reaction from the library and publishing communities.

Initial Questions on Google's Library Digitization

Google and Research Libraries Launch Massive Digitization Project. Barbara Quint. Information Today. December 20, 2004.
As Google prepares to digitize the collections of five major research libraries, there is concern about how publishers will be affected as well as about the survival of libraries.

Book Sales Viewed as Complex Systems

Physics Model Predicts Book Sales. Technology Review. December 10, 2004.
Research published by Didier Sornette in the November 26, 2004 issue of Physical Review Letters suggests that the sales of books can be predicted by the same models used to study epidemics and earthquake aftershocks.

Globalization of Electronic Documents

Gregory M. Shreve's Software Localization presentation and related files now available. OCLC Announcement. December 17, 2004.
Gregory M. Shreve, Professor of Modern and Classical Language Studies at Kent State University, states that, with the coming growth of regional markets, companies will have to globalize their electronic documents, and make them accessible in a diverse array of languages. His recent contribution to OCLC's Distinguished Seminar Series is available in mp3 audio and as a Powerpoint presentation. His presentaion from November's ASIST conference has also been made availalbe here. [DSS PowerPoint] [DSS Audio] [ASIST Presentation]

Reaction to Google's Library Digitization Plans

Google Plan Mostly Hailed by Librarians. Library Journal. December 20, 2004.
LJ got responses from Michael Gorman and others to Google's ambitions to digitize 15 million books from major research libraries.

Video Search News

Video Files Present a Search Challenge. Leslie Walker. Washingtonpost.com. December 19, 2004.
Web Watch columnist Walker provides a short summary of recent developments in video search.

Search Wars

What's Next for Google. Charles F. Ferguson. Technology Review. January 2005.
In this excellent feature article, Ferguson presents an overview of the present state of the search industry and evaluates the likelihood of Google or Microsoft dominating it in the long run.

Web Architecture

Ten Years Later, the Web Gets a Blueprint. Paul Festa. CNET News.com. December 15, 2004.
W3C's Technical Architecture Group has published Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One which discusses the core design components of the Web. The document is intended to be accessible to a wide audience. [Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One]

Yahoo and Video Search

Yahoo Tests Video Search Engine. Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. December 15, 2004.
Yahoo has introduced the beta version of its video search service which will index video clips found on the Internet. The company is also involved in developing a proprietary standard known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Media which would allow people to aggregate video feeds. [Yahoo! Video Search]

Google Digitizing Library Contents

Google Adds Major Libraries to its Database. Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. December 13, 2004.
Google is planning to scan the holdings of five major research libraries for inclusion in its search engine database.

Supreme Court to Review File Sharing Ruling

File Sharing Goes to High Court. Associated Press (via Wired News. December 10, 2004.
The U.S. Supreme court has agreed to review the lower court ruling that favored Grokster and StreamCast over Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and other movie studios.

Google Could Monetize News Search

Google Magazine Search? Susan Kuchinskas. Internetnews.com. December 9, 2004.
Careful reading of a patent application recently filed by Google suggests a way it might be able to make money from its news site.

Google Suggest

Google offers a suggestion. Margaret Kane. CNET News.com. December 10, 2004.
Google adds a new feature that guesses what the user is entering into its search box.

Current Issues in Web Search

What's Next in Web Search? Laurianne McLaughlin. IEEE Distributed Systems Online. no. 11, vol. 5, 2004.
This series of articles looks at search engines' efforts to personalize searching and to make it accessible on other devices than desktop PCs. [Making it Personal] [Stepping Away from the PC]

Knowledge Management for Academic Researchers

References as Knowledge Management. Erik Wilde. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. Fall 2004.
Wilde, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, reports on the ShaRef Project, a program designed to assist researchers in managing their Web and bibliographic references.

Birds May Hold Clue to Language Development

How Birds Learn to Sing May Hold Clues to Human Language. Kathleen Doheny. HealthDay. December 8, 2004.
Researchers wanted to discover whether birds learn their song complete, or just information about its parts.

Contrasting Cultures at Google and Yahoo

Yahoo!, Google Search for Competitive Edge. Cory Johnson. CNBC. December 6, 2004.
While Yahoo concentrates on bringing traffic to its varied products, Google creats new technologies and then looks for sponsors.

Getting Acdemic Librarians out of the Library

"I Wouldn't Have Asked for Help if I had to go to the Library": Reference Services On Site. Jennifer Lee, K. Alix Hayden, and Don MacMillan, University of Calgary. Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship. Fall 2004.
Noting the reluctance of students to ask for help in the library, this paper reports on efforts to send "liaison librarians" out into academic departments to provide instruction and assistance.

Microsoft Testing New Blogging Service

Microsoft Gets the Blogging Bug. BBC News. December 2, 2004.
Microsoft is trying to catch up with its competitors in the blogging arena with the introduction of MSN Spaces.