Copyright–Databases
“Supreme Court Rules for Freelance Writers in Tasini Appeal”
Marydee Ojala, the editor of Online and an Editor-at-Large at EContent has posted a commentary about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision. The article also contains comments from several publishers and attorneys. A must read!
See Also: ALA/ARL Statement on Decision

Web Search–Google
Google Debuts Beta of “Image Search”
According to the FAQ the database currently contains about 150,000,000 images. Access to Image Search is avaiable via a special interface box on the advanced search page or on the Google Image Search page. Images can be limited to type by using filetype: (an image filetype extension (.gif, jpeg, jpg, etc.)) This syntax can be combined with other Google syntax. From the FAQ, “Google analyzes the text on the page adjacent to the image, the image caption and dozens of other factors to determine the image content.” Direct to the FAQ
Additional Details via Search Day

Info Industry–Dialog
News Release: “Dialog Announces New Pricing Initiatives”
Analysis: Barbara Quint provides a Complete Analysis via an Information Today NewsBreak
The lead of the news release, “Dialog, a leading provider of online-based information services and a subsidiary of The Thomson Corporation (TSE:TOC), announced today the first in a series of new pricing initiatives to be rolled out during the next two years in which Dialog will develop and implement new pricing programs and options across all three product lines – Dialog�, Profound� and DataStar.”
Highlights:
*Revision in DialUnit Structure
*Connect Time Pricing
*Simplified Contracts

Web Search–FirstGov.Gov
FirstGov.Gov Adds State Pages to Database
Pages from individual States have been added to the FirstGov database. The main FirstGov page allows users to select either Federal, State, or both types of material. The advanced interface allows limiting to a particular State. Also, new to the advanced interface is the ability to limit by domain. Hopefully, this upgrade to FirstGov along with others (the advanced interface needs to be clearer) will make for a more effective tool for searching U.S. Federal and U.S. State material. More later.
Direct to the Advanced Interface of FirstGov.Gov
Updated 6/27 “FirstGov Expands to States” via Federal Computer Week

Web Search
Source: Wall Street Journal
“New Search Technology May Not be Able to Read Your Mind, but It’s Getting Closer”
Kudos to Craig Landy for making sharing this important message. From the article, “All that said, there are issues standing in the way of a perfect search engine that may never be resolved. Problems like relevancy have come a long way in the past six years, says Craig Landy, director of SearchEngines.com, a Chicago-based industry-watch group. But one thing that hasn’t improved, he says, is credibility of information. “It’s easy to know if a document is relevant,” he says. “But it’s hard to know if it is accurate, viable information.”

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