Siva Vaidhyanathan (a professor in my department, btw) has posted reader comments from his original request for feedback as to some of the concerns with of Google's plan to digitize library books. He was kind enough to include my repsonse,…
Category: Issues
Yahoo! Mindset: Intent Driven Search
Yahoo! Research Labs released a beta version of a new search tool called Yahoo! Mindset allowing users to filter results on an axis of "shopping" (i.e., commercial) vs "researching" (i.e., non-commercial) sources. From their site: Find the results you like.Sort…
One College Librarian Worries About ‘Atomizing’ Books…
Siva also points to this Chronicle of Higher Education interview with Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association, a critic of Google's library project. The summary:Mr. Gorman, who is dean of library services at California State University at Fresno,…
Read More One College Librarian Worries About ‘Atomizing’ Books…
Concerns with Google Print Library
Siva Vaidhyanathan is working on a paper/talk about the social implications of Google's plan to digitize library books, and asks for feedback. The broadest issue is the widespread acceptance of the "Google paradigm" for organizing, distributing and accessing information. Google…
University Presses Unhappy at Google Print
InsideGoogle points to this report about a group of academic publishers concerned about Google's plan to scan millions of library books into its Internet search engine index:The plan "appears to involve systematic infringement of copyright on a massive scale," wrote…
The Sociology of Interfaces
Korean and Finnish university researchers have conducted a new study into how cultural differences influence computer interface requirements, focusing on how Korean, Japanese, and Finnish people responded to different mobile data services and how those responses matched cultural aspects. The…
Analyzing the Google News Bias
Continuing the on-going discussion of bias at GoogleNews, TechDirt links to this study (an MA thesis) which aims to measure the source bias in GoogleNews.The study examines search results for evidence of bias. By analyzing the content of articles returned…
Planting My Search History Entries
It seems that Philipp Lenssen has figured out how to surreptitiously add searches to my Google Search History:If you have the Google My Search History activated, check if you find an entry today for the search query “Google Blogoscoped sneaked…
Dan Gillmor: Google’s Toolbar Keeps Invasive Autolink
Following up on the Google AutoLink debate, Dan Gillmor reacts to the latest version of the Google Toolbar:So Google has mostly ignored the criticism of its Autolink feature in the new Toolbar. eWeek reports some modifications from the original, but…
Read More Dan Gillmor: Google’s Toolbar Keeps Invasive Autolink
Black Boxes Capture Car-crash Data, Controversy
Warren Webb at EDN.com has posted a nice summary article on the vehicle black box controversy, "Black Boxes Capture Car-crash Data, Controversy": With little fanfare or customer notification, some automobile manufacturers have for years been recording your driving habits. Initially…
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