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(5 Sep) On the heels of a survey of U.S. law firm librarians, which revealed dissatisfaction with the pricing and packaging of online legal information, is a similar report from the U.K. "[U]ser complaints about high costs and poor customer relations are frequent." The writer takes the position that too little competition in the industry relieves the vendors of "competitive pressures. Barriers to entry seem high and end-users may bear some responsibility for this."
The article ends with a quote from an unnamed bank information manager: The "'exclusivity [of the legal market] and set "way of the world" informs how they operate, leading to a conservatism when sourcing information and a reliance on a few brand-name suppliers. This in turn has made competition and innovation pretty moribund in this part of the information world.'"
RELATED: Research: High Costs & Too Many Choices
TVC Alert Research News, 13 August 2007
(5 Sep) Google and Amazon plan separate electronic book ventures that reveal how they envision the acceptance and use of such technology. Their visions are quite different and I think Google has the right idea.
Amazon next month plans to introduce an electronic book reading device called Kindle. Priced at $400 to $500, it will connect by wireless modem to the Amazon site. In addition to pre-packaged reference books and a selection of news feeds, people will be able to "download books and periodicals, and browse the Web, without connecting to a computer."
So it seems the public will have yet another proprietary portable device, which at least gives us the option of carrying around a limited library. If I add this to the hardware I already carry around for business (because it's highly unlikely I'd choose it over a paperback for the beach), I will have to lug it around with a laptop, cell/PDA and portable or USB drive. And the only thing Kindle is likely to give me that I can't get already with my laptop or PDA is a book for work that isn't available elsewhere online.
Will I pay for the privilege of carrying this device out of my own pocket? Probably not.
Google, on the other hand, and according to The New York Times article, "plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of some books in its database." At long last, I will have an option beyond the bookstore or library for reading beyond the snippet Google often provides. Even better, I don't have to buy, or lug around, a separate device to gain access.
The article ends with the usual argument against electronic books, saying they never will replace printed books. But who said they have to do so? Why should consumers not be able to choose between paper texts, audio or digital texts? And if they chose a digital text, why in the world would they not want options for displaying it?
(6 Sep) Google announced the addition of several potentially useful features to its beta book search site. Readers may now create their own library, in which they can organize, annotate or search (the full-text of) the books. They may share the collection as well as set up RSS feeds to keep those who use it up to date with additions.
Another feature lets you clip and post selections of text from out-of-copyright books. You may then opt to post them to Blogger or Google Notebook. Or you may obtain the URL to embed the clip in a Web page.
A third feature helps you refine a query. Placement of this feature appears at the bottom of the search results for the first page. (I'd like to see it moved to the upper left-hand side of the page so that it's in the researcher's range of vision when the results first appear.) For example, if you query Richard III, suggestions for refining the search include encyclopedias and dictionaries, American literature (oddly), publishers and publishing, Great Britain and utopias (the connection here is Sir Thomas More).
Finally, if you allow Google to track your search history, it now includes book queries.
SEE: Google Book Search
RELATED: Google Books: Embed Book Clips Into Websites
TechCrunch, 6 September 2007
(6 Sep) The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McGraw-Hill to surrender documents in a price-manipulation investigation. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sought to enforce a subpoena in a matter involving the submission of false data to Platts, a McGraw-Hill subsidiary, for use in Inside FERC."
SEE: CFT v. McGraw-Hill
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Opinion, 27 August 2007
(5 Sep) The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) announces the release of its issue brief on electronic discovery issues for state CIOs. Entitled "Seek and Ye Shall Find? State CIOs Must Prepare Now for E-Discovery," the paper "explains the impact for State CIOs of e-discovery requests and encourages State CIOs to pursue a holistic approach to enterprise records management as part of a team of state government stakeholders, including state legal counsel, archivists, records managers, and agency business leaders."
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Wink: Wink queries social networking sites, such as MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn and Live Spaces, to find public profiles of participants. Additionally, Wink lets you create your own Wink profile so that you may "control your name, location, description, and other contact information." Initial results show the screen name and other basic public information, such as the individual's industry and social networking affiliation (site).
Wink recently expanded the sites it queries to include some people search sources, such as The Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia. (et)
Pipl People Search: Web search company, Poogee Software Ltd., offers a search engine for finding information about people. Powered by Google, Pipl filters information from select sources in an effort to provide more relevant results. Typically, phone book entries appear at the top of the search results. These appear to come from PeopleData, Google and Yahoo.
Also forced to the top of the list are results from other people finding search tools; e.g., BirthDatabase and RootsWeb.com.
Next are "quick facts," which describe the person you seek. Source information appears to the right of the entry. This is followed by biographical sources.
In essence, Pipl serves to force more relevant Google results to the top of the hit list. You will likely see matches from genealogy sources, social networking sites and white pages. Thorough research, though, may require the use of additional search engines and sources.
We'd also like to see Pipl further filter results for specific top-level hits. For instance, common names still generate too many false hits. If a searcher were to click a biographical entry or phonebook entry, it would be helpful if Pipl then narrowed results based on the click-through data. (et)
ZoomInfo: ZoomInfo is a search engine for finding companies, people or jobs. It contains profiles on more than 36 million people and 3.8 million companies.
Initial results for company searches show the company name and location. Follow the name link to find a basic profile, which provides the following, if available: street address, phone, Web site, industry, revenues, number of employees and key people. However, be sure to verify this information. Our test queries found several errors.
Initial people search results show options, if they match what appears to be more than one person. Follow the name link to find more details, including employment history, education, professional membership and Web references. Again, take this information with a grain of salt and verify it.
Note: Registration and log-in may be required to display some information. Access to executive profiles requires a paid subscription. (et)
Research News Archive
5 September 2007
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Cite as: TVC Alert Research News, 7 September 2007, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=sep07/7sep07.xml
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Created: 7 September 2007
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URL: http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=sep07/7sep07.xml
Contact: Genie Tyburski![tvceditor [at] virtualchase [dot] com](../images/editor_882_sm.jpg)
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