Tech Fun

Huge news!

http://code.google.com/apis/books/

Here’s what I’d like to see:

1) a “review shell” for all books in GBS — I note that one of the API commands enables developers to submit reviews for any GBS book
2) an “annotation shell” that provides page by page displays of books with page by page community annotations
3) A “slate ready” version of the book reader that prepares the book in PDF format for an E-Ink reading device (not the HTML-dumbed-down Kindle)
4) A “print me” application that works with the Espresso Book Machines deployed at my friendly neighborhood University of Michigan Library
5) an online reading application that lets publishers sell online access to 100% of a book’s content
6) a “mashup” tool that combines public domain maps and public domain text
7) a topical mashup tool that puts together everything GBS has on a topic (e.g. Napoleon’s victory at the battle of Marengo)

I wasn’t worried about this in the first place (see comment 42 in http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_google_have_rights_to_all.php), but now it’s official.

Official Google Blog: Update to Google Chrome’s terms of service
So for Google Chrome, only the first sentence of Section 11 should have applied. We’re sorry we overlooked this, but we’ve fixed it now, and you can read the updated Google Chrome terms of service. If you’re into the fine print, here’s the revised text of Section 11:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

And that’s all. Period. End of section.

It’s a layer on top of Windows, which is great, but underneath … it’s still Windows!  Ccheck out what happens when you unsuspectingly click on Options > Under the Hood > Change Proxy Settings.

That’s right, it’s the familiar, and hideous,  Internet Properties dialog frow Windows.

It lost this race with my Wordpress “Press It” button, which loaded faster in Firefox despite a 5 sec hind start.

Official Google Blog: Google Chrome now live

Ok, this is fun … my first post via  Google Chrome.

The logical next step is to open up ContentID to the masses, so that any fool with a video camera can “monetize” their shenanigans.

Official Google Blog: Making money on YouTube with Content ID

Google runs 50-200 search experiments at any given time. this makes me insane with jealousy. When I was at LexisNexis, it was essentially impossible to run experiments in production.

Official Google Blog: Search experiments, large and small

I’ll be really happy when you can limit searches to results that occur only in Popular Passages.

Inside Google Book Search: Meditating on books
The concept of transience and impermanence runs through Kenkō’s work, but the book has been given a long life by other authors who have cited him. Here you can read all the instances of the above quote on Book Search. I would guess that Kenkō never imagined this blog-rebirth I have granted him, but he would know that as blogs become passé, antiquated and finally forgotten, he’ll still be there to be found by unknown friends.

Now

this is simply extortion. For china, one of the worst violators of intellectual property and fair trade laws in the world, to complain about anti-trust is laughable.

Might Office be where Microsoft gets socked with Chinese antitrust charges? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
Back in June, there were more than a few stories about PC makers in China getting ready to sue Microsoft for alleged antitrust violations pertaining to Windows. Microsoft and China’s State Intellectual Property Office — the latter being the source of the original round of stories — both claimed the initial reports were inaccurate.

But according to a new story from the August 15 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft still might not be out of antitrust hot water in China. And Office, not Windows, may end up the primary target of any new antitrust complaints.

…
What’s your take?

What a mammoth investment in reinforcing existing MSM media opinions. It would be a lot more interesting, and a lot cooler, if the Google Reader folks came up with something that would draw on sources outside the echo room.

Official Google Blog: Follow what Obama, McCain and leading political commentators are reading
At google.com/powerreaders now you can track the news sites and blogs Barack Obama and John McCain read (from Drudge to The Daily Show) and follow articles catching the eyes of leading political journalists