Internet News

Adware targets Google

Adware infiltrates Google "Software replaces popular search engine's results with its own, letting advertisers 'cheat' and leaving users in the dark" by Richard J Dalton Jr, NewsDay.com (Sept 18) -- Beware these two hijacking programs - "2search and premiumsearch.net, place ads in the primary search listings of the Google screen, instead of on the advertising section areas labeled "sponsored links."

Look Ahead

Surfwax Offers Look-Ahead Technology for Web Sites Gary Price, SearchDay (Sept 19) -- "Today SurfWax is introducing a dynamic query suggestion tool that can be easily installed and customized on any web site." Price says that "Technology like this has the potential to save a user a large amount of time and aggravation by helping create a more focused and precise query, thereby getting better results. It can also help when a searcher enters general terms when they're looking for something specific."

A new web

It's A Whole New Web And this time around it will be built by you Business Week Online (Sept 26) - Announces the arrival of a new Web of community and participatition.

Of interest - " The new imperatives of Web 2.0, as many call it, will present challenges not only for Web giants such as eBay (EBAY ), Yahoo, and Google but for some of mainstream tech's biggest leaders as well. That's because these new Web services are rapidly erasing the line between the Web and desktop software. "Applications are no longer software artifacts," notes Net pioneer Tim O'Reilly, CEO of tech publisher O'Reilly Media Inc. "They're ongoing services.""

And if Ajax has its way, this will be a faster Web too, where response is as good as desktop software -- Ajax: How To Weave A Faster Web

Best Picks from Business Week

A Plethora of Web Picks "Our Best of The Web survey drew a huge response from readers. Compare their picks to those of BW editors" Business Week Online (Sept 26)

Business Week asked its readers what were their favourite Web sites. The results are surprising and offer many new useful sources for blogs, shopping, and participation.

"Judging from the results, BusinessWeek Online readers love to watch and share video and photos, blog, and shop more than anything else. But they also use the Web to get things done: To find and sell stuff on the classified-ad site Craigslist, look for jobs on HotJobs and SimplyHired.com, research investment information on Yahoo! Finance (YHOO ), and find and socialize with friends on the social-networking services MySpace and Rabble. "

Blog for therapy

Blogging for the Soul, Not the Bottom Line by Enid Burns, ClickZ (Sept 16) New survey of bloggers done for AOL found that half of respondents blog for self-therapy.

"Further, one third of bloggers write about self-help and self-esteem topics. Thirty-one percent either blog or read blogs in times of need or high anxiety, while only five percent prefer to seek help from a counselor or mental health professional. The only thing more popular than blogs in times of need is seeking advice from family and friends."

Google to go AOL?

Analyst says Google may bid on AOL to fend off Microsoft By Jonathan Thaw, Bloomberg News via Houston Chronicle (Sept 16) What a speculation this is! "Google, the most-used Internet search engine, may consider making a bid for America Online to keep the company from switching to Microsoft Corp.'s search technology, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst said Friday." AOL has been using the Google search engine at search.aol.com.

Flock - A Social Browser

Flock Web Browser: Could it Supplant Firefox as Browser of Choice for Cool Kids? Cory at Traffick.com (Sept 18)

"... the company behind Flock is billing it as a "social browser" that integrates directly with next-generation services like web feeds, blogging tools, social bookmarks and photo sharing services. These next-gen features are part of what many observers call "Web 2.0", presumably named after John Batelle's groundbreaking technology conference of the same name, whose goal is to bring together the players who are building this new future."

Flock is by invitation only at this time.

AOL Podcast Search

AOL launches podcast search Net Imperative (Sept 14) AOL Search will be adding the Podcast search engine - "Podscope creates a spoken word index for every word in audio and video files, makes the files searchable in the same manner as text pages on the Web."

Yahoo Local Praised

Rebirth of the City Portal by Justin Sanger, ClickZ (Sept 15) - Takes a historical perspective on the city portal and its fluctuating fortune. See signs of a renaissance and praises Yahoo Local - "Yahoo! Local now suggests users "start with [its] city pages, which [are] built for every city, neighborhood, and zip across the country." These city pages feature time-sensitive activities, top user recommendations for favorite local hangouts, personalization, and additional rich content."

Photographs Memory of Canada

Framing Canada, A Photographic Memory Library and Archives Canada: Website has a searchable database of photographs from 1840 to present selected from the collections at the Library and Archives, as well as history of the collection and a learning resource. There are several of the Victoria Bridge in Montreal. More detail on how to use this from ArchiviaNet.

Yahoo E-Mail Better

Yahoo takes on Google by Riva Richmond, News24.com (Aug 30) -- describes changes to the email service.

Reviews of Battelle's book

Two reviews of John Battelle's new book, The Search: How Google Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture -

Search as the New Great Game by Chris Sherman, SearchDay (Sept 14)-- "Although the subtitle includes the requisite mention of Google, the book is really a much broader look at both the history of the web search industry and the profound effects and changes it is having on our social lives."

How Google Got Its Groove, Business Week Online (Sept 19) - "Worthwhile for its insights on how the Google craze got started."

Multimedia Search

SearchWebMedia is a new search engine for multimedia content on the Web, free, and commercial - it claims. Comes from GoFish.

Try Diana Krall- get albums, tracks, playlists, as well as search results from Google. Of course all of those tracks come with a price.

GoFish Launches Web Media Search ResearchBuzz (Sept 14)

Semantic Web

A Beautiful, Networked World? Sap Info (Aug 29)

"In a conversation with Andreas Blumauer, project manager at the Semantic Web School in Vienna, SAP INFO online illustrates how far the vision of Berners-Lee, the founder of the Web, has already taken form in the real world and the actual advantages of the Semantic Web of the future – far from any technological infatuation."

Yahoo E-Mail Overhaul

Yahoo to test e-mail upgrade by Michael Liedtke, AP via Globe and Mail (Sept 13) -- "Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday will begin testing a sleeker version of its free e-mail service, shifting to a more dynamic design that mimics the look and feel of a computer desktop application like Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook".

Also Yahoo blends Web e-mail with speed of desktop, Reuters (Sep 14) - "The new version of Yahoo Mail works in a browser, just as existing versions of the program do, but Yahoo has developed ways to short-circuit the multi-second delays that typically delay any action taken in Web-based e-mail programs."

Google Blog Search

Google has launched a new search engine for searching RSS feeds. Google calls it Google Blog Search but according to reports in SearchDay it is only indexing the feeds generated from weblogs and some other sources excluding news sources.

Google Blog Search (http://google.com/blogsearch) has a simple interface. Results are individual blog postings and are sorted by relevance. Order can be changed to date (likely more useful). Advanced blog search supports searches in the subject line of the posting, blog title, and blog author. For example, you could find all posts by Gwen with Search in the posting title. This is fine until I change my posting name. Tara Calishain at ResearchBuzz now signs with RBuzz but used to use tara.

Reminder - Google Blog Search picks up only the feeds that are created which may not have the full content of the posting. To have your blog included, be sure to ping the major aggregators like Technorati or Weblogs.com.

Google Launches Industrial Strength Blog Search by Chris Sherman, SearchDay (Sept 14) - has more tips on using link: to find out who's linking to a post or blog, and on setting up alerts. Predicts that other search engines will be doing blog / rss specialized searches soon too.

Google Launches a Blog Search ResearchBuzz (Sept 14) offers a detailed description of search options including syntax supported. Calishain found a lot of blogspam in the results - something Google will have to address as others have.

About Google Blog Search - Google's faq.

YotoPhoto

Search Engine of Free, GNU FDL, Creative Commons Images ResearchBuzz (Sept 7) - Reviews Yotophoto for free photos.

From the web site - " Yotophoto is the first and only internet search engine for finding free-to-use stock photographs and images" - though check the exact usage license first.

Yahoo Images v Google Images

Contemplating Yahoo Images and Google Images ResearchBuzz (Sept 7) - found Yahoo better than Google for finding images.

"Yahoo Images had far fewer results in the results count (just over 100) but the results were much more immediately useful -- actual RSS button images were the first few results. Using the size nav in the right corner (love the size nav in the right corner) I narrowed by results down to size small and got the images I was looking for."

Ask Jeeves Holds to Search

Ask Jeeves CEO: "We Are Focused on Core Search" by Andrew Goodman, SearchDay (Sept 12) - Ask Jeeves CEO Steve Berkowitz spoke at the Search Engine Strategies conference, August 8-11, 2005, San Jose, CA.

"For now, the official company line is that Ask Jeeves is, as Berkowitz stated, "focused on core search," meaning that the technology team is simply focused on building a superior search engine, and that the IAC play is by no means a strategic intervention only that considers search as a mere commodity."

Paper on RSS in the Enterprise

RSS in the Enterprise "Respected strategic consultant to the digital publishing industy EPS Ltd presents an unbiased examination of RSS in the Enterprise, highlighting use cases, cost/benefit analysis and how information professionals can fully exploit the benefits of RSS." White paper available with registration from Moreover.

CNNMoney.com

Time Warner to Consolidate Financial Sites By Kevin Newcomb, Clickz, (September 13, 2005 )

CNNMoney.com to launch in January with "content from the Time Inc. magazines Money, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, and Business 2.0, as well as from cable news channel CNN."

Google Earth review

Google Earth Netmag.co.uk (Sept 2005) -- With Google Earth, "Google brings mapping to the desktop. Is this just a whizzy bit of software, or a glimpse into the future of search technology? A bit of both, we think."

EBay to buy Skype

EBay Calls On Skype For Growth by Gavin O'Malley, Media Post (Sept 13)

"WEB AUCTIONEER EBAY ON MONDAY said it would buy the Web telephony start-up Skype for between $2.6 billion and $4.1 billion, with the exact price depending on whether Skype meets performance targets over several years. "

"Meg Whitman, eBay's CEO, said on a conference call Monday that eBay, Paypal, and Skype should amount to an "unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine.""

Firefox 1.5 Beta

Firefox 1.5 Beta Released, Sharon Machlis, Globe Technology (Sept 12) Version 1.5, in beta, features automated patching and updating, making it easier to fix security holes. There are some new user features related to tabs, search, and user preferences - and it will be faster.

See also eWeek's First Look at Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 (Sept 10)

Developers and people who like to be involved in testing can download the beta at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/

Battelle on Google Search

Journalist Googles Google With New Book by Michael Liedtke, AP via Yahoo News (Sept 11) - John Battelle's new book, Search, is a study of Google and to some degree search. Liedtke says "Battelle nevertheless manages to keep things compelling, adding his own trenchant analysis about what Google's rapid evolution and powerful technology might mean for the company and our society as a whole." Many interesting bits in Liedtke's review.
.

American Literature

A Kaleidoscope of Digital American Literature Published by the Council on Library and Information Resources and Digital Library Federation -
by Martha L. Brogan with assistance from Daphnée Rentfrow

"This report will be useful to anyone interested in the current state of online American literature resources. Its purpose is twofold: to offer a sampling of the types of digital resources currently available or under development in support of American literature; and to identify the prevailing concerns of specialists in the field as expressed during interviews conducted between July 2004 and May 2005. Part two of the report consolidates the results of these interviews with an exploration of resources currently available. Part three examines six categories of digital work in progress: (1) quality-controlled subject gateways, (2) author studies, (3) public domain e-book collections and alternative publishing models, (4) proprietary reference resources and full-text primary source collections, (5) collections by design, and (6) teaching applications. This survey is informed by a selective review of the recent literature."

This is a very large PDF file and appears to be free. Very through catalog of resources with web links.

[Spotted in Resourceshelf]

Digital Reference Shelf - September

September issue of the Digital Reference Shelf by Péter Jacsó reviews two resources on terrorism: Terrorism Knowledge Base, and Terrorism Q and A.

Gale has reorganized Digital Reference Shelf and it is much improved. Reference Reviews is the top level with links to reviews by several authors. These are now archived by subject, by month, and by author. It is much easier to find Jacso's work. Unfortunately the archives include only the last three months (at this time). To read earlier reviews by Jacso, you can still access the search page, http://www.gale.com/servlet/ReferenceReviewSearchPageServlet. Search for Peter Jacso as the author, and a keyterm in the title (eg google). Must have a search term to get results.

Enhancements at Hoover's

Hoover's Rolls Out Significant Enhancements To Family Tree And Adds Deeper International Company Coverage Press release (Sept 8)

"Hoover's, Inc., a D&B company that gives its customers a competitive edge with insightful information about industries, companies and key decision makers, today announced significant enhancements to its Family Tree Viewer and additional international company coverage. The enhancements, available to subscribers immediately at www.hoovers.com, provide greater insight than ever before into companies and their corporate structures."

Out-of-Print Books

What out-of-print books are people searching for? Bookfinder, online since 1997, tracks the titles. See The Bookfinder Report. There are some surprises - people are still reading Taylor Caldwell.

Spotted on the ResourceShelf (Sept 10)

Google Maps

Google has great app, different strategy by Andy Ihnatko, Red Streak (September 9, 2005) - about the terrific things Google did for and to Google Maps.

"But even novices can build custom maps in a jiffy thanks to a free service from MapBuilder.net. It has built a Web-based interface to Google API that lets you build a mashup on your own, adding points by plugging in details and coordinates. MapBuilder.net will then host your map so you can share it with the world . . . or you can click a button and the site will spit out all the JavaScript and HTML source code needed to generate the map. Cut and paste it into your blog or Website, and you can bamboozle people into thinking you're a JavaScript genius."

MSN/IM with Bell Mobility

Bell Mobility to offer MSN/IM by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (Sept 8)

"MSN IM, which lags behind America Online and Yahoo instant messaging in the United States, is the dominant messaging communications program in Canada. Some 11.5 million Canadians who use MSN IM can use the cellphone version out of the box."

"The service, available to Bell Mobility customers, will cost $3 per month. Those who subscribe to the $5 mobile browser bundle or one of rate plans that cost $35 or more that include the browser bundle will have unlimited messaging without incurring any transfer fees."

Go to Bell Mobility website for

Audio books for download

Canadian libraries mull audio downloads, Canadian Press via Globe and Mail (Sept 7) - In the US 1,200 libraries offer downloads of audio books to their patrons. Will Canadian libraries do the same? Service is provided through arrangements with OverDrive Inc. or NetLibrary who license books from publishers, then provide them to libraries using the Windows Media format. Fraser Valley Regional Library in Abbotsford, B.C. offers the service, and Ottawa Public Library is planning to do so by the end of the year.

Vint Cerf at Google

Vint Cerf Joins Google Red Herring (Sept 8) "The Internet's founding father signs on as chief Internet evangelist at search giant." In joining Google, Mr Cerf predicted that, "“This medium will enjoy wider-spread use than television, radio, or phones, and will ultimately expand beyond planet Earth” ... “Google has always believed in doing things differently, and I believe that places us in a unique position to help bring even the wildest Internet visions into reality.”

More analysis in Internet Pioneer Vinton Cerf Joins Google, by Michael Leidtke, AP via Globe and Mail.

New Pandia Search Engine News

Pandia Search has redesigned its Search Engine News section. There are more images, and better arrangement of links to other sections and materials. This excellent service is a family-run business - one couple handles the whole operation. Subscribe to the newsletter or get the feed.

"Internet search ecosystem"

SearchThis: What's on Your Mind? By Kevin M. Ryan, IMedia (Sept 7) -- "Search Editor Kevin Ryan analyzes how search activity reflects the nation's response to Hurricane Katrina, gas, and more." Uses Yahoo! Buzz Index, Google Zeitgeist, and MSN Search Insider to see what has been on the minds of searchers during the unfolding of the Katrina disaster. Watching this activity, Ryan notes, "brings us closer to understanding how the internet search ecosystem functions".

One section is about the sponsored listings that come up. Of interest: "And let's not forget what the credit card companies are making on these transactions: as payment for managing your portfolio of charitable donations, Network for Good [a charity portal] deducts three percent of total donations from credit card entries and $10 per transaction for online checks."

Technorati Blog Finder

Technorati Launches Technorati Blog Finder in SEW Blog (Sept 7) - Technorati has a directory-like blog finder that uses the tags people have been assigning to their postings - and somehow that converts to a tag for the blog.

Greasemonkey changes pages

Monkeying With the Web - A new browser tool lets you rewrite anyone's homepage - by Paul Boutin, Wired (Sept 2005) -- "Greasemonkey is an extension for the Firefox browser that lets Boodman's Java­Script - or anyone else's - alter a Web page as it's downloaded."

Yahoo Link and Linkdomain

Yahoo! Link Command More Accurate Says Tim Mayer Search Engine Roundtable (Sept 2) - Yahoo made some changes to the link commands in response to criticism.

Lars Våge explains how to use link and linkdomain in this article - Link search with Yahoo's linkdomain

Copyright and Google Print

Legal Experts Say Google Library Digitization Project Likely OK; Will It Revolve Around Snippets? by Danny Sullivan, SEW blog (Sept 7) - Continued debate on the benefits and the harm of Google showing snippets from books it has indexed. Refers to this article in Internet Week - Courts Unlikely To Stop Google Book Copying

Google Earth Tips

Hacking Google Earth by Chris Sherman, SearchDay (Sept 6) -- Sherman has many tips for fans of Google Earth, the stunning software for satellite views of our planet.

LexisNexis on Katrina

Read stories for news sources worldwide about Katrina at no charge from LexisNexis. This is a vast resource and has some Canadian sources. Check http://www.lexisnexis.com/news/

Free Lexis-Nexis access to Katrina coverage Poynter Online (Sept 6)

Blogs Record Disaster

Blogs Provide Storm Evacuees With Neighborhood-Specific News by Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post (Sept 7)

"As the world's news media show the big picture of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina, some Web sites are finding ways to provide specific information to those hungry for details about their homes and local landmarks."

Specific mention of Ernest Svenson's blog - Ernie the Attorney, and Brian Oberkirch's Sidell Hurricane Damage Blog.

Also see Blogs and Information Community Respond to Hurricane Katrina by Miguel Ramos, Newsbreaks (Sept 6)

IM with VoIP

Your next phone: new IM tools with VoIP by Elsa Wenzel, CNet (Aug 25)-- " Instant-messaging apps are adding Web-based calling so that you can make free phone calls around the world. " Has a comparison table of features of the IM programs with VoIP. Yahoo, ICQ and Skype also support calling phone on land lines for a small charge. Just a tip - if you are going to use one of these, be sure to get a good headset - don't try to get by with only a microphone.

Newsknife analyzes Google News

Newsknife rates news sites for quality. It has just added monthly rankings of top news sites based on its analysis of articles picked up in Google News.

Newsknife's current top news sites - Based on appearances at Google News (Sept 2)

Newsknife tallies the first source of a news item in Google News. In August, the top three were the Independent UK, Washington Post, and Guardian Unlimited UK. The preponderance of UK sources was because of their coverage of the bombings in London. Overall for the year, Google picks up Reuters as the first source most of the time.

Newsknife will be adding new ways of analyzing the date in the coming months.

Reputation Monitoring

LeisNexis and Biz360 Partner on Reputation Monitoring Solution Newsbreaks (Sep 5) -- " LexisNexis (http://www.lexisnexis.com) announced the availability of LexisNexis MarketImpact, a reputation and brand monitoring solution. It is powered by Biz360 (http://www.biz360.com), a provider of market intelligence solutions that also provides the Web content. "

Yahoo Audio Video Search

Finding your media on the Web by Dana Greenlee, Tacoma Daily Index (Sept 2) - Interviewed Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's Director of Technology Development for Search, about Yahoo's audio and video search. She explained that for files with audio - "We’re doing speech recognition. We take these media assets and run them through a speech recognizer and pull out descriptive text. The publisher of the content needs to describe the media assets and get them into an index: title, author, keywords, description -- things that make it findable. "

DANA GREENLEE
By Dana Greenlee, Technology Columnist

Google Has Become Erratic

Google Losing Consistency As It Continues To Experiment With Results SEW Blog (Aug 31) -- Danny Sullivan is finding Google very erratic in how and where it displays results. You'd think that Google would appreciate that it's not good to annoy the user.

Google Print in Europe

Google Opens Digital Library by Michael Leidtke, AP via Yahoo News (Sept 1) -- Google has asked European book publishers to submit non-English content to the Google Print digitization project.

"Google said European publishers interested in having their books scanned include: Grupo Planeta and Grupo Anaya, both of Spain; De Boeck and Editions De L'Eclat, both of France; Netherlands' Springer Science & Business Media; Italy's Giunti Editore; and Germany's Mare Buchverlag."

Librarian bloggers

Investigating the Biblioblogosphere by Walt Crawford, Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large - examined and evaluated 60 weblogs done by librarians (or for librarians).

Wanted: Simple displays

Less is More in Web Search Interfaces for Older Adults by Anne Aula and Mika Kaki, First Monday (July 2005) - Compares use of Google to Etsin, an interface designed specially for older adults. Found that Google is not especially user friendly, especially to older users. Generally participants in this study preferred Etsin. Participants were 56 to 82 years old (average = 63.3) Main finding -- "In the quest for elderly–friendly search interfaces, our study showed that a simple design makes the search experience less problematic and more manageable for older adults."

Feed search at MSN

MSN Search Gains New Feed Searching Commands SEW Blog (Aug 31) - Ways to search for RSS feeds at MSN Search using the prefix feed: and hasfeed:

Fighting Spyware

Theft You Don't Even See By Leslie Walker, Washington POst (Sept 1) [subscription] Spy software is becoming more prevalent and it makes money. Webroot, an anti-spyware software maker, reports that there are 300,000 web sites pushing unwanted software onto your machine as you surf by. Leslie Walker tells of some first-hand experiences and says that she no longer keeps sensitive files on computers connected to the Internet.

Smarter Search Soon

On the Frontier of Search by Terry McCarthy, Time magazine (Aug 28) -- Predicts a future where search engines are "smarter and more tailored to the individual, embrace video and music--and be accessible from any device with a chip."

+ Singingfish for image and video is mainstream. But Viisage will recognize faces.
+ Cell phone search facilities to find local services as you walk down the street and even give information on an object you've just pointed the camera-phone at (from Mobot).
+ KnowItAll for getting answers.
+ More tagging and finding through tagging.
+ Blinkx.TV for tracking down video clips.
+ Satellite online maps - Google, MSN, A9.
+ Personalized starting with Findory for news, and now adopted in the new Google desktop.

Google Print by Country

Google Print Goes International SEW Blog (Aug 30) - Gary Price noticed that Google Print now has 14 different English-language interfaces. Seems that they link to local booksellers and have local pricing. For example Google Print Canada links to Amazon.ca and Chapters.Indigo.ca.

Publishers oppose Google Print

Opposition To Google's Book-Copying Intensifies Information Week (Aug. 29, 2005 ) "Two more publishers' groups have joined a third in opposing Google's library project. At least one group has threatened legal action."

Guess the Search Terms

There's a new game on the Web to entertain searchers. It's done in Flash and is called Guess-the-Google. View the images and then guess the search term; build up your score. Lots of fun.

New Thomson and Gale web sites

Thomson Gale Announces Redesigned Web Site EContent (Aug 30) -- "The new home page for Gale] is designed to help visitors find more targeted information by allowing them to select the part of the Web site they'd like to visit--public libraries, academic libraries, K-12 libraries government and special libraries."

Copernic Desktop

Smart PC Searches Find the files you need on your overpacked hard disk. by Steve Bass, PC World (Aug 24) - Bass comments on a few utilities and settles on Copernic Desktop Search as the best.

Fun stats from Amazon

Amazon's Vital Statistics Show How Books Stack Up By Linton Weeks, Washington Post (Aug 29) [subscription required] Search-Inside-a-Book at Amazon not only gives you access to selected pages of a book, but it counts words - all the words, and unusual phrases (called Statistically Improbable Phrases - SIPs) - while also assessing complexity. Text Stats has a score for Fog Index - "Conceived by the late Robert Gunning, an English professor at Oxford University, the index states the number of years of formal education you should have in order to read and comprehend a random passage."

You can see an example with Ulysses by James Joyce. Note the SIPs and CAPS. Then move down the page to see Inside this Book and a link for Text Stats. You'll find that Ulysses has a low fog index and a low complexity index.

Compare this to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.

Not all search-inside books have these analyses. Look for CAPs and SIPs at the top of the page, then scroll down to Inside This book.

Detect plagiarism

New LexisNexis CopyGuard Verifies Content Originality by Paula J. Hane, Newbreaks (Aug 29) New service from LexisNexis will identify plagiarism.

"The new LexisNexis CopyGuard helps detect plagiarism and copyright infringement and verify content originality. Users can compare a submitted document against more than 6.1 billion searchable documents available through the LexisNexis service, including deep archives, and 4 to 5 years of archived Web pages from iParadigms. Pattern-matching technology identifies any suspect passages and provides an originality report and a “similarity index.”"

Google Print

CORRECTIONS: Google Print Not All I Said It Was by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Aug 29) - Quint issued this mea culpa for misstating Google's relationships with publishers and libraries in its digitization project. Google doesn't provide them with digital e-books, but Google Print does supply the libraries with digital page images and text files. Article reviews all that is known about Google Print. Quint is apologetic for the error, but Google deserves some of the blame for its singular lack of openness about its programs. Often analysts have to infer and guess.

Clusty for blog search

Metasearch The Blogosphere With Clusty by Gary Price, SearchDay (Aug 29) Recommends Clusty (http://blogs.clusty.com/) as a metasearch engine for searching weblogs and RSS feeds. It runs searches at Blogdigger, Daypop, Feedster, Technorati, Blogpulse, and IceRocket, and then clusters the results.

Stephen Arnold on Google

The Google Legacy: How Google's Internet Search is Transforming Application Software by Stephen Arnold being published through Infonortics. Arnold is a brilliant observer and analyst of the Internet and the information economy. His analysis and views are original and insightful. He was among the first to spot the power of the Overture model for paid listings. His assessment of Google will be equally sharp.

"Google is not just about search: search is merely one application you can load on its processor. Although Google has been releasing a series of separate application programs, the company is starting to assemble the mosaic pieces into a bigger picture. Its future will be about leveraging its innovative hardware/software infrastructure. In so doing, just as Microsoft replaced IBM, Google promises to replace Microsoft as Network Computing comes of age."

Infonortics site has the table of contents and sample chapter.

Canada's CA*net 4 gets support

CANARIE, Rogers to connect researchers Globe and Mail (Aug 29) -- "CANARIE, Canada's research and education network organization, and Rogers Telecom Inc. (formerly Sprint Canada), a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., have announced a multi-million-dollar contract whereby Rogers Telecom will provide a wide range of network services to support the CA*net 4 network."

Yahoo email search

New and Improved Mail Search from the Yahoo blog (Aug 29) - will search attachments, and offers options for refining the search.

RSS primer by Chris Sherman

Series about RSS - really simple syndication - by Chris Sherman at Searchday.

What is RSS, and Why Should You Care? (Aug 30) - short history along with basic description - "Acronyms aside, RSS fundamentally is a relatively simple specification that uses XML to organize and format web-based content in a standard way."

RSS Search Engines (Aug 31) - who produces RSS feeds and how you can search for them.

Choosing an RSS Reader (Sept 1) - recommends some of the best (or easiest) methods for receiving and reading RSS feeds. Doesn't mention Sage which can be used with the Firefox browser.

Katrina blogs

Bloggers Emerge As Information Sources in Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath "CNN.com most cited source for hurricane news, with bloggers playing unique roles in disaster and relief efforts" PRNewswire via Marketwatch (Aug 31) -lists some on-the-scene blogs.