Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: March 7, 2005

MSN’s News Aggregator Offers Deduping

Program Manager Todd Colby posted to msnsearch’s WebLog last month on MSN Newsbot’s addition of a ‘similar coverage’ feature [SearchEngineGuide]:

  • “As you may know, many news sites publish wire service stories, like those from The Associated Press. Since the same story is republished on multiple sites the reader does not gain by having these presented repeatedly. Newsbot now groups these together with a single summary and allows the reader to select the site where they want to read the full version.”
  • Spyware Workshop Report Available From FTC

    “The Federal Trade Commission today released a staff report summarizing the issues and drawing some conclusions from its April 2004 workshop, “Monitoring Software on Your PC: Spyware, Adware, and Other Software.” The report, a transcript of the day-long session, a list of participants and their presentations, and comments filed with the Commission, is available here.”… Continue Reading

    Wizardry Behind Google’s System Stability

    In the category of learning from the pros, this ZDNet article decribes the combination of hardware, software and expertise leveraged by Google to ensure optimal system performance. Scaled down to smaller enterprisewide operations, this information provides food for thought. Related news: “Google today announced the formal launch of Google Desktop Search, a free downloadable application… Continue Reading

    Impact of Growing Open Source Access to Topical E-Journals

    The following article, in PDF, begins on page 1 and continues on page 13: Information Free-for-all? by Trudy Bell, from IEEE’s The Institute Quarterly, March 2005. [Peggy Garvin] Related beSpacific postings on open source journals and public access to scientific sources. See also, Open Access or Differential Pricing for Journals: The Road Best Traveled? Continue Reading

    Pew Survey Tracks Growing Importance of Internet in American Political Process

    From the Pew Internet and American Life press release: “The internet became an essential part of American politics in 2004. Fully 75 million Americans – 37% of the adult population and 61% of online Americans – used the internet to get political news and information, discuss candidates and debate issues in emails, or participate directly… Continue Reading

    Increase in Phishing Attacks Spurs Interest in Security Technology

    From the Washington Post, New Industry Helping Banks Fight Back – Sleuths Hit Online Identity Thieves With ‘Takedowns,’ ‘Poisoning’. A patch-work of emerging technology applications are available targeted to financial services and e-commerce, seeking to address growing consumer concerns with e-mail and website fraud. This article reviews the challenges posed by phishing and the possibility… Continue Reading