Lots of interesting stuff

A very interesting week, this one.

  • Microsoft announces Office Live and Windows Live, which everybody reads as their fearful response to Google.
  • Google Print launches, allowing you to search inside books.
  • Amazon Pages is announced, which might do for books what iTunes did for albums. You may soon be able to buy individual pages of books. So here’s a question… if they succeed in this, and they price it right, will it be the end of photocopying in libraries?

Thanks to John and Adam for the links.

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1 Comment

Running from the competition is never a good sign. Almost by definition, Amazon can’t succeed trying to outdo Google print. A while back, Fortune interviewed business leaders as to their secrets. Jeff Bezos said the trick for Amazon was to ignore the competition, and tinker and innovate on their own. Here, they are instead in a rather reactionary mode.

if they succeed in this, and they price it right, will it be the end of photocopying in libraries?

I hope not. Photocopiers are still the best for me for quick, usable versions of everything other than books that needs to get copied, like handwritten letters and other original documents, and libraries are reliable places to find them.

Inspirational Apple article – thanks for posting the link.

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