Google Inc. has managed to gain a historic & landmark victory in a case regarding digitization of books & making them available for online consumption.

Presiding Federal Judge Denny Chin dismissed the case, dating back almost a decade (2005), that was levied against the Internet Giant for scanning complete editions of books & making the digital copies available for online search & consumption.

Why was Google being persecuted?
Christened the 'Library Project' Google was trying to convert major publications & the literary works therein, into soft form, via large industrial scale scanning machines that managed to digitize an entire book within minutes. These digital copies were later further processed using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) techniques to identify & convert the scanned images into legible texts & thereby enable textual search. The project started in 2004 has managed to digitize over 20 Million literary works.

Such a project & the techniques allowed vast amounts of data to be collated & made available for search via Google's search engine. The opposing parties, consisting mostly of publishers, including The Authors Guild, argued that such a project is in direct violation to the Copyright Law.

But Google successfully proved that the literary works, though available for free, were disabled for printing & further the company reaffirmed that Google Books (another name for the project) is in compliance with copyright law and merely acts like a card catalog for the digital age, giving users the ability to find books to buy or borrow.

The Judge feels that the project offers great benefits to all the sections of society & gives new lease of live to forgotten editions & hence the project should be allowed to continue. Chin concluded that Google’s use of the copyrighted works is "highly transformative" in that it enables readers, scholars and others to find out about new books and permits book text to be transformed "for purposes of substantive research, including data mining and text mining… thereby opening up new fields of research". The plaintiffs are sure to appeal in higher courts, but Google is rejoicing for now.

Google Books or the Library Project is indeed a very important endeavor that offers a glimpse into the literary works that common citizens may not have had access to. However, the company will surely monetize the venture in the future & when it does, it will have to ensure the creators & the respective copyright owners are justifiably rewarded. Are the plaintiffs arguing to eventually settle for something similar?

Image Source: Publisher Weekly

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IBM, once the biggest computer company in the world, has largely been relegated to the enterprise side since more than a decade. While they might not be selling personal computers and other such consumer facing technology, they have been busy with research in artificial intelligence and computing. An important outcome of that R&D is Watson, an intelligent program which recently outsmarted the best Jeopardy players in the world. Jeopardy is an American TV game show which gives players general knowledge answers as clues and asks them to guess the question. This is fairly complicated and the speed matter a lot. Watson easily outclassed the human players in this competition.

Watson is an artificial intelligence program which can answer queries asked in natural language, a very difficult feat. IBM announced yesterday that it will soon be putting its Watson technology on the cloud. They will be providing developers a platform where they can write new types of apps which use Watson's cognitive computing power to answer questions that the app's user might ask. While this seems like Siri or Google Now, Watson is much more advanced than that when it comes to cognitive understanding and queries. Watson acting as a cognitive backend for an app simply means that apps can do much more than simple queries. IBM Watson Developer's Cloud will be licensed to developers from all sectors so that they can build the next generation of smart apps. Developers will have access to Watson via an application programming interface (API). The app will send API calls to Watson whenever it needs answers to a query and Watson will provide the computed data to the app. This has very big implications in big data, health science, information flow and large scale computing.

This really is a very good consumer facing aspect of Watson and if successful will open up a good monetization channel for IBM.

Michael Rhodin, SVP of IBM Software Solutions Group spoke about the development,

"By sharing IBM Watson’s cognitive abilities with the world, we aim to fuel a new ecosystem that accelerates innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. With this move, IBM is taking a bold step to advance the new era of cognitive computing. Together with our partners we’ll spark a new class of applications that will learn from experience, improve with each interaction and outcome, and assist in solving the most complex questions facing the industry and society.”

Once a lot of apps start using Watson as their computing engine, Watson will have gotten enough data to improve itself in terms of its understanding of our world, thus enriching its information base and skills. While this may remind you of Skynet and other such Sci-Fi films, I think this would be a big advancement to large scale computing, which will now be accessible to anyone who wants to use it, as compared to many years back when such programs and their infrastructure were hidden from the general public. With the advent of the cloud as a backbone of modern computing processes, it is only logical that the information be open and accessible to the general public at large, so that they can use it for work and play.

While this may be huge, there is something bigger coming! Steven Wolfram of the mathematical computing engine WolframAlpha wrote in a blogpost that they have been developing something which will change computing and development and make it even more accessible. They are announcing their own cloud platform and a new language called the Wolfram Language, which seems to be a natural language to interact with this cloud. He says that this could be the Universal Language of computing!

What can I say! This is an awesome time for those who are into computing!

Source | IBM

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Google has given its Android search a boost by adding new cards, attractive search results and a smarter Google Now. For starters, Google has added "What to watch," News topic," and "Website update" cards to Google Now. These cards will give Google Now the ability to give you updates on your favorite TV shows, what websites you should check out and breaking news topics.

The update also brings new Siri-like conversational voice commands to Android. Users can have a much more natural dialog within Google Search, with the app asking for clarification when multiple options exist or further confirmation is needed to perform an action. This new voice functionality is available in Google Search 3.1 for Android, which is rolling out to users now.

In addition to cards, Waze traffic data has been added to the search along with location-based information. When you visit certain places of interest such as tourist sights, Google Now will come up automatically to supply you with information. Furthermore, the update also adds repeat reminders, real-time scores for your favorite rugby teams and when your holiday shipments are ready to be picked up from a store. A new button on the lower left corner will let users access reminders, and swipe to refresh is also rolled in.

It is expected that a similar update will land on iOS devices soon. Google Search is free to download from the Google Play Store. It is compatible with devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and up.

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MIT's Tangible Media Group has pushed the envelope further when it comes to physically interacting with objects and things which are remotely located. Their technology demo of this new tech called InForm is really impressive.

This Dynamic Share Display technology of theirs lets you interact with remote objects in a tangible way, sitting right there at your computer. This might have a lot of implications with the way we interact with objects and people in the near future. Truth is, I can't explain it very well in words. You will have to see the video below to completely understand it.

Isn't this super cool? Imagine the sheer number of things that are possible with this technology, once it gets better and standardized. The system uses Microsoft's Kinect technology to take input. This input is then fed to the movable stack of pins. The instructions contain within them location of you hands in 3D space (thus giving the pins the height, width and depth values). The stack of pins you see are responding to the user's stimulus in real-time.

MIT is working to realize a concept called Radical Atoms, whose aim is to make all digital objects have physical manifestation. This could significantly change the way we behave with computers and therefore digital information. Firstly, it could help us break away from the rather old way of interacting with computers through a screen. This could gives us a very tangible way to manipulate information, study big data, program or simply interact with the environment in an intuitive way than ever before!

Source | MIT Tangible Media Group

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Olacabs, a Mumbai based online cab booking platform has successfully closed its Series B round of funding. Though the quantum of investment in this round, led by Matrix Partners India and Tiger Global has not been formally disclosed, industry insiders are speculating this round made Olacabs richer by US$ 20 Million. The company will utilize these funds to expand operations in newer markets and deepen its technology and analytics expertise.

The personal transportation & fleet-taxi service has been arranging for funds on a more routine basis. Tiger Global Management, its most staunch supporter was the first ever firm to put in funds via Olacabs’ first institutional funding, last year. Additionally Tiger Global put in US$ 3.2 Million just a few months back.

Olacabs' appeal to the investors could be influenced by the rapid adoption of the technology, hinted Avnish Bajaj, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Matrix India,

"Ola is leveraging technology to revolutionize ground transportation and is aggregating the highly fragmented cab & car rental market – one of the large travel verticals yet to be organized in India… This platform provides a public utility by allowing Indian consumers to experience a safe, comfortable, standardized service offering at transparent and competitive prices."

What he meant was Olacabs has been striving to bring structure & organization to the otherwise highly fragmented & decentralized taxi service within the country. Additionally, with the use of all possible nodes of customer interaction, including mobile, Olacabs has been smart enough to add vital & customer centric features that are sure to be appreciated.

Founded merely two years back, Olacabs has been able to bring over 1500 taxi & fleet operators within its umbrella of collative taxi booking service. Furthermore, realizing the opportunity to add value to the Online Travel Agent (OTA) portals, Olacabs has tied-up with GoIbibo, MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip & others to offer pick-up & drop assistance to travelers who make travel arrangements through these OTAs.

Olacabs certainly has a long-way of development & area-coverage ahead of the company. With timely infusion of funds, the company could truly offer a simplistic taxi-booking service that can be accessed from Phone, Mobile or Computer. What do you think?

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Pinterest has launched first API that will enable third party sites to embed Pinterest pins outside the social network. This is the first API launch by the social scrapbooking network. API’s will help stores and brands display which of their items were most frequently and recently pinned.

“Now, when you go to AllRecipes.com in search of Thanksgiving recipes, you’ll see the most popular recipes on the home page, chosen by fellow Pinners,” Jason Costa, Pinterest Head of Developer Relations, wrote in a blog post. Pinterest has partnered with well-known sites, including Walmart, Disney, Nestle, Zappos, BuzzFeed and many more for the same. The API roll out will allow these brands access to the top pins from their domain, currently trending images on their site, their top domain search results, the most recently pinned items from their site and pins related to what a user is currently looking at. These widgets will make the experience better for everyone as it will provide brands with knowledge to what's resonating with pinners, so they can better curate content both on and off of Pinterest.

Pins displayed will be refreshed in real-time, enabling brands to highlight their products that match the users’ current interests. These pins will be available via the Web and company-specific mobile apps. Pinterest members can save a pin directly from the site, without having to take a break from shopping, reading or browsing. Brands will not require to pay a fee to utilize these Pinterest embeds.

Pinterest said it is starting slow and working on high-quality integrations with partners of different sizes which will be fully rolled out in the coming weeks. Pinterest forayed into ads with promoted pins in September and received $225M in funding last month.

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Google has updated its transparency report to show more information about the data requests that it gets from various Governments around the world. Since, there have been many disclosures about surveillance activities, thanks to Snowden, Google has said that they would like to give more data to its users about these requests.

The company says that since it started releasing its transparency report in 2010, the total requests have grown by more than 100%. This is directly proportional to amount of people who are getting onto the internet and using their service.

Here are some images which show the overall Government requests that the company receives,

As you can see there has been a worrisome rise in the amount of Government requests since 2009. The US Government sends the highest number of data requests to Google. India and Germany come second. However, the gap between India and US is staggering! US has been in the news lately because its internal and external surveillance efforts have come to light. They are spying on everyone out there in the guise of national security when it is clear that the mass collection and parsing of user's personal digital data is not the right solution to the problem.

As you can see in the images, Google has very cleverly black marked a section saying that the US Government does not want you to see this data. This is similar to the black marker you see on US classified and recently declassified documents. This sends a strong message to the US Government as well as its users.

When it comes to India, we don't really have any idea as to what the Indian Government is actually requesting from Google. We don't know if the Government actually spies on the digital lives of its citizens although they seem to have plans to do that. We might probably need a whistleblower of our own in the days ahead!

Link | Google Transparency Report

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Wacom Co. Ltd. a company headquartered in Otone, Saitama, Japan, who primarily produces graphics tablets and related products, has come up with an affordable Touch-Pad that has the added benefit of Stylus. Optimized for the Desktop Operating Systems & compatible with Windows 7/8 as well as Mac, the touch-pad is being touted to offer a whole new interaction experience with the OS as well as the applications therein.

Christened 'Bamboo Pad', the touch-pad is essentially a dual-input device with the infused capabilities of multi-touch & gesture control.

Desktop makers, including Microsoft & Apple have been working hard to offer gesture based & intuitive control of their Operating Systems (OS). Though laptops do have a touchpad & one can procure a working alternative for the desktop, the experience has been limited.

Is the future Gesture controlled? Though the humble mouse still has a long way to go before it is retired, the future of OS Control is certainly gesture & multi-touch controlled. Windows 8 or 8.1, the current flagship Desktop as well as Tablet OS of Microsoft has been designed specifically keeping in mind gesture & multi-touch control. With large-screened tablets supporting direct screen or touch-screen input, multi-touch & gestures come in very handy to instantly execute functions, start, pause or stop apps & peek at various notifications, without interrupting current task.

Bamboo Pad takes the concept a step further with a smart stylus that allows the user to scribble personalized inputs within the application opened like e-mail or image editing. With intelligent recognition of the Pen or the Finger, Bamboo Pad can easily switch to the intended mode without having to be instructed.

Gesture control, driven by multi-touch has certainly entered mainstream computing thanks to smartphones & tablets. But Wacom, with the affordable Bamboo Pad, has brought the same simplicity & intuitiveness to Desktops.

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Yahoo it appears, is yet again trying to gain from its old internet properties. After allowing netizens to grab e–mail IDs that were left dormant or unused, Yahoo is now opening up access to some 100 odd Domain Names.

Yahoo announced yesterday that it was selling domain names it has no use for including a set of generic web addresses like Sandwich.com, Crackers.com and Sled.com. Though Yahoo will presently put up just 29 Domain names on auction, it stated that it had 'stumbled across' some 100 web domains it owns and would prefer 'to set them free, back to the wild of the internet'.

What it essentially means is that Yahoo Inc. presently owns a lot of domain names that have the potential to make huge money when put up for Auction. The ‘reserve range’ listed for these domains ranges from 1,000 dollars for several of the offerings to US$ 1.5 Million for av.com.

Yahoo's technique to make old domain names available for usage by common buyer is a very interesting one for garnering business and traction. Yahoo is one of the oldest web–entities and hence has accumulated a lot of interesting companies via inorganic acquisitions. Quite recently its CEO Marissa Mayer had even stepped–up the acquisition process. But the domain names are relatively liquid assets that can be exchanged for monetary gains very easily.

Yahoo has chosen domain name brokering platform Sedo.com and the auction will run for just a week starting from today. While 29 names are available immediately, Yahoo will add more at a later time, before the auction ends.

Yahoo claims to be the sole owner of the domain names and buyers shouldn't face any issues of owner transfer and registration. Those who are interested can head here to get the complete list of Domain Names Yahoo has put up.

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