Google and Reading Books Offline
December 26, 2011
I recall writing a short analysis of the methods Google used to prevent a person from reading an entire book on one of the Google services. There were both patent documents and technical papers. The methods were interesting and seemed to be difficult to work around. We learned that with a little coordination and a number of different “helpers”, it was possible to get most pages in a book, but even that method was far from fool proof.
Imagine my surprise when I read “Google Books for Chrome Gets Offline Support, One Less Excuse for Not Reading the ‘Classics‘”. According to the write up:
the Google Books app for Chrome now caches your titles for local reading. To download a book, just hover over the cover in library view and select “make available offline” from the pop-up. Then, even when you can’t get your Chromebook connected, you’ll be able to sit back and relax with a classic novel or seedy romance tale.
With libraries facing push back from publishers for lending eBooks, I found the Google service interesting. Will the addled goose read classics on his Chromebook? Nope, the goose is not a Chromebook user. Our question, “What’s next?” Might the Google allow reading public domain books on any device running Chrome? Might the Google “rent” a title because the methods for knowing who has what exists? Is Google now following Amazon? Worth watching as Google moves to redefine itself for 2012.
Stephen E Arnold, December 26, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Inteltrax: Top Stories, December 19 to December 23, 2011
December 26, 2011
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, watching things moving and traveling with the aid of big data analytics.
Our story, “Unstructured Social Data is a Gold Mine for Travel Sites” shed some light on how many travel sites like Travelocity are utilizing big data to aide customers.
Similarly, our story “Airports and Analytics Grow Closer Together” showed how the complex world of airports are getting less cumbersome by sorting their unstructured data.
Our third story deals more with our voices traveling, “Telecom Attracting Big Data Heavyweights,” shows how phone companies are embracing this technology to improve customer experience.
Clearly, it’s a growing time for travel and analytics. We’re keeping a close eye on the developments and you can be assured that we’ll keep you informed as things change.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
December 26, 2011
Resources for Your ALM and CI Questions
December 26, 2011
Recently, a SharePoint 2010 Developer instructor, Andrew Connell, posted some suggested sources to turn to for answering your frequently asked questions on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and continuous integration (CI) in “SharePoint 2010, ALM and Continuous Integration Resources.” Andrew Connell is a Microsoft developer specializing in the .NET Framework and content management, specifically Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 and SharePoint. He is also a multiple time recipient of the Most Valuable Professional for SharePoint Server Award. He explains:
When teaching SharePoint 2010 developer classes I typically get at least one question every other class as it relates to ALM. On occasion there is at least one student who is used to doing continuous integration (CI) in their non-SharePoint projects and want to know how to it in SharePoint 2010 projects. For me, the best person you can look to is Chris O’Brien.
ALM, the coordination of all aspects of software engineering, can be of benefit to your work processes. While Connell’s suggested resources are a little older, they have worthy advice on the topic and are a good place to start.
If after reading you find you still need assistance, consider a full-service firm like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. As a third party solution for your SharePoint system, their technology combines your on-premise information with Cloud information, connecting the right people to the right information. Here you can read more about how Mindbreeze adds more efficiency for SharePoint, “It enables all information that is connected to Mindbreeze to be displayed in Microsoft SharePoint. This takes place smoothly via Web Parts. In this way not only information contained within Microsoft SharePoint, but also all other information that is available within the respective company, can be consolidated within one “platform.”
Check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze’s full suite of solutions.
Philip West, December 26, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Critical Success Factors for PLM
December 26, 2011
In our browsing around for information about product lifecycle management we came across a March 2011 Whitepaper “Six Critical Success Factors for PLM Deployment: What High Tech and Electronics Companies Need to Know to Achieve Success”. While the paper is older it offers some key factors to keep in mind.
The electronics and high tech manufacturing companies face price pressures, rapid change in the market and other requirements while producing products in a timely and innovative manner.
The paper offers an easy to read chart that outlines the six critical success factors they identify: architecture, usability, scalability, security, flexibility and cost-effective extensibility.
These elements should combine to offer:
a PLM system that is able to balance both long-term and short-term business needs.
We agree that these are important factors in deploying a reliable PLM. We have found these same six elements in the PLM applications offered by Inforbix and we understand the differentiating factor is cost-effectiveness.
Constance Ard, December 26, 2011
Construction Ahead for AOL
December 26, 2011
Shareholder pressure, poor financial performance, and staff defections—now that’s a Kwanzaa gift with quite a few goodies inside. Will Google-inspired management reverse the Yahoo-ization and Research in Motion approach to corporate progress?
Once again, AOL is about to restructure itself, reveals Steven Musil at CNET News in “AOL to Announce Company Reorg, Report Says.” Is this really necessary? Reorganizations make for lost time, after all. True, AOL has suffered for being behind the curve on Internet trends; its share price has fallen over 40% over the last 52 weeks. But will it gain more than it loses with this rework?
CEO Tim Armstrong believes so. The article notes:
AOL hired Armstrong away from Google in 2009 with hopes that the Web giant’s advertising sales guru would help revive the ailing AOL. However, Armstrong, who is best known for developing Google’s online advertising business, has had trouble competing for ad dollars with his former employer, as well as Facebook and Yahoo.
I’m sure he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Now he hopes consolidating AOL services into one division will help. The company is also creating dedicated units for advertising, local services, and the Huffington Post media group.
Speaking of the Huffington Post, where’s the Huffington rescue squad? Can’t Arianna do anything she sets her mind to?
Cynthia Murrell, December 26, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search Behavior Spurs Orbitz
December 26, 2011
This is how search is changed on a mobile device. Forget in-depth and iterative queries. I want a hotel room tonight! That’s our take-away from Media Post News’s piece, “Orbitz: 65% of Mobile Hotels Bookings Are Same-Day.” By contrast, only 14% of bookings from the desktop site are for the same day. Tablet users are in between, at just over 30%.
Armed with the new mobile statistic, Orbitz seeks to build its revamped mobile site around customers’ ever more immediate needs. Writer Steve Smith relates:
‘This new medium of mobile allows them to comparison shop and find great deals at the very last minute,’ says [Orbitz VP, Chris] Brown. The new Orbitz.com for mobile Web browsers includes ‘Mobile Steals’ — discounts of up to 50% on hotels that are available only to mobile customers, including iPad users. ‘We’re uniquely positioned to pair that demand with suppliers with unfilled rooms and provide great rates,’ he says.
Yes, they are. With over 2 million unique users per month, Orbitz is eager to serve. Immediately. As mobile search behavior becomes the norm, what happens to research centric research? High school term papers may be two or three paragraphs long with research conducted entirely by poking and accepting what a system outputs.
Cynthia Murrell, December 26, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Browse the Web and then Have Diphur Monitor It
December 26, 2011
When browsing the web, Bookmarks are often used to keep track of where we’ve been and would like to return. The unfortunate thing about Bookmarks is that they have no way of showing site updates. For those who are troubled by this fact, I would like to introduce you to Diphur.
Diphur is a practical application that notifies you when new content has been posted to your favorite websites. Also, according to a November Diphur blog post, users now have the option of private bookmarks as well as some UI changes to make navigation and filtering easier.
MakeUseOf’s Salkat Basu, reported on Diphur in the article “Monitor Just About Any Webpage For Changes with Diphur.” Basu said:
Diphur can be set up to grab any kind of updates. Think of the Giveaways you might be missing on our site. You can set up Diphur to notify you in real time when one gets announced. Just like an early bird, you can come and participate. Looking out for any content that gets published with a specific tag; Diphur can get that for you. The same goes with any other data that you might be monitoring on a periodic basis.
For those who are tired of having to constantly have to go back to their bookmarks to check for updates, adding Diphur to your repertoire will be like a breath of fresh air.
Jasmine Ashton, December 26, 2011
Google Plus the Muppets
December 26, 2011
I do not have a dog in this social fight. Sure, we dump information into social channels, but we use software, not humans. We may give puppets a try. Google has. Navigate to “Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Now the Muppets. Just Who is Google Trying to Attract Anyway?” Forbes, in a moment of clarity, seems to be thinking as the addled goose does. The estimable publication writes:
Google, it is now clear, has flung itself headlong into TV advertising, since its first ad that aired during the Super Bowl in 2010–an event prefaced by Eric Schmidt’s infamous Tweet that hell has indeed frozen over. But just who is Google trying to attract with its campaign–which has included spots on NBC’s Saturday Night Live”, Fox’s Glee and the World Series. To promote Chrome, it has recruited Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. None of these shows and artists, except perhaps the World Series, exactly screams out ‘we’re a serious social network.’
Here in Harrod’s Creek we are not confused about Google or its many products. We rely on other services because the precision and recall of Google search results are not useful to our work. Yes, we maintain a for fee Google account. We have colleagues who use shared Google Docs, and we find our account expedites access and certain operations.
We actually like puppets. Users who accept outputs from predictive search systems are actively participating in puppet shows. Guess who is pulling the strings? Amazon will sell you a puppet theater too.
Stephen E Arnold, December 26, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Hewlett Packard: Misunderstood for 2012?
December 26, 2011
Now that Autonomy, one of my all-time favorite search vendors, is part of Hewlett Packard, I feel obligated to pay attention to the ink vendor. Oh, I know you may think HP is more than ink, but I learned that HP ink is worth more than diamonds or gold when you have a gallon of the stuff in those nifty cartridges.
HP generated in 2010 about $120 billion. IBM, by way of contrast, generated about $100 billion in 2010 and will nose closer to $120 billion when its 2011 fiscal year closes. HP is big, diversified, and the proud owner of Autonomy. The deal was worth about $11 billion which is nearly 10 percent of HP’s 2011 revenues. I would not ignore Autonomy, but that’s what happened in “Hewlett-Packard Isn’t Looking Forward to Next Year, Either.” The write up from the Motley Fool, which is certainly no silly goose, asserted:
Even though Whitman nixed most of her predecessor’s moves, she agrees with Leo Apotheker in that HP needs to focus more on software in the coming year, competing more directly with other enterprise-software giants such as IBM (NYSE: IBM ) and Oracle(Nasdaq: ORCL ) . She decidedly doesn’t want to transform HP into a software company, as Apotheker was clearly trying to do, but rather wants to build up the software segment as a complement for customers. Whitman has her work cut out for her but has admitted that 2012 is not the year that HP investors should be looking forward to. The mobile revolution is going to be huge. But just because HP left early, that doesn’t mean you have to miss out. We’ve just released a brand-new, 100% free report that details one stock that is in an enviable position powering the mobile Trillion-Dollar Revolution from the inside, while also having exposure to China’s red-hot growth.
Ah, ha. the article is not really about HP, Autonomy, or the price challenge HP will face from outfits like Google. The Motley Fool, which is no fool, is using the HP story to market a report. I don’t have much of a problem with a free report, but I do wish, some of the smart folks would pay attention to Autonomy and the financial potential it may deliver to HP. I just wrote about Aurasma, Autonomy’s augmented reality technology in my Information Today column for February 2012. I think the idea of putting Autonomy technology in printers is interesting, but there are some aspects of Autonomy that warrant its inclusion in HP write ups. I am fascinated with mobile, Ms. Whitman, and enterprise hardware, but there are some more interesting topics to explore. That’s the difference between a fool and a goose I suppose.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Books Lawsuit Lurches Back to Life
December 25, 2011
Six years ago the Authors Guild first brought a copyright violation suit against Google for scanning books in its attempt to digitize every word ever published. PaidContent.org reports that now it is “Back to Square One in the Google Books Lawsuit.” The Guild just made the first procedural step required to bring a class action suit. What happened to the first attempt? Writer Jeff Roberts explains:
This is essentially where the authors were in 2005 when Google first partnered with dozens of libraries to create a digital collection that today numbers at least 14 million titles. The collection is now languishing unread after Judge [Denny] Chin rejected the Google Book Settlement, an ambitious three-way partnership that would have allowed Google to sell out-of-print books and share the proceeds with publishers and authors.
Many are anxious to know whether Google’s scanning will be judged a “fair use” that doesn’t violate copyright. Google is expected to move to have the case thrown out, but even if it proceeds, it will be a while before that question is answered; the case will be caught up in procedural matters for some time.
It’s too bad the Library of Congress did not tackle this project, since the Google approach seems to be going nowhere fast. The collective enlightenment of humanity will have to wait.
Cynthia Murrell, December 25, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
