I want a book reading challenge. Some of my favorite posts, over the past year have been those folks participating in some quasi-organized reading challenge. The themes have been great too. So now I’m in search of one. Fortunately…
Category Archives: On the Web
Google’s knol
I can’t make up my mind just how big of a deal this is. To be honest, I never really dug into Wikipedia, never having enough faith in what the masses would post. But then I discovered the Bhamwiki. It was like a light bulb that suddenly turned on. I got it. Our little local wiki is exactly what the whole Wikimedia is supposed to be about. It’s a great place to look up info on local authors, books,publishers etc.
And now Google is throwing their hat in the same ring. The only difference, that I can find, between Wiki and Google is that:
1. Google will restrict entry editing to a slate of topic experts, to kick things off.
2. Google will allow these topic experts to share in the ad revenue stream generated by their entries.
Are there more differences? I’m certainly not qualified to write anything, but I’ve been a fan of Google for a while and I’m wondering why they keep spreading out into new areas, beyond their core search business. Maybe it is just to stem the people clicking from Google search links to Wikipedia, as this guy’s non-scientific test highlights.
Top selling out-of-print books
Here’s a list I wish I could have as an RSS feed in my pocket. It’s the Top 10 Out-of-Print Books that have sold on eBay. In other words, the top ten books you are most likely to run across at yard sales and flea markets that are netting the big bucks on online auctions.
I might have to start keeping an eye on this list. We have tons of little antique shops in Birmingham that always have books tucked in the corners. But to be honest, if I ran across Once A Runner, I’d glance at the cover and keep moving. But that just shows how costly ignorance can be. That book is selling for $200 on eBay! It’d be a dream to run across one of these knitting books for a couple of bucks and pass them along to someone who REALLY wanted it. I’ll pass along updates as I find them.
Ten years ago today…
The term “web blog” was coined by Joen Barger. That article has some of Barger’s “principles for good blogging”. I found #2 interesting. After thinking about it for 10 seconds I realized just how true it is.
I wish #8 would catch on with everyone too! I hate clicking on a blog link just to find the pdf viewer launching to view some static calendar.
{via Books, Inq.}