1. End of MS Book Search
It’s all up to Google now…or is it?
- Why killing Live Book Search is good for the future of books (Ars Technica)
- Universal Digital Library: Offers 1.5 million works and counting (Resource Shelf)
- Microsoft Burns Book Search – Lacks “High Consumer Intent” (Search Engine Land)
- Microsoft Dumps Book Search: Giving Way to Google? (Mashable)
2. Keeping us connected
Currently, the US is ranked #15 in worldwide broadband usage. What will it take to get everyone online from wherever they are? Free Broadband? Better wireless?
- FCC wants free broadband service, plus content filtering (Ars Technica)
- State Efforts to Expand Broadband Access (Docuticker)
- W3C Launches Group to Help Bridge the Digital Divide (LIS News)
- Access to next-gen Internet may be uneven (Wired)
3. 2.0 is good for what?
Keeping us connected. At least that’s what these articles indicate. We are all more interactive now. We talk about the latest TV episodes on Twitter, have MySpace themes that plaster our opinions of movies and music, and blog about what’s happening around us. Apparently, Web 2.0 is one big water cooler.
- Have blogs been good for books? (Books, the blog)
- The interactive web’s other big benefit: it boosts PR (Ars Technica)
- Blogs vs books, from a writer’s point of view (Steven Poole)
- Twitter helps TV viewing become social (Smart Mobs)
4. R.I.P. land lines
Half of world’s population has a mobile device. It’s important to know how to reach your users, and land lines are a dying breed. Is your web site mobile? Are you sending blog, Twitter and MySpace updates regularly?
