Computer and Library Learning

Facebook versus Google: Looking Ahead to 2012

Much of the writing on the technology pages throughout 2011 has revolved around the rivalry between Facebook and Google. Much of the writing toward the end of 2011 has offered prognostications about their continuing rivalry in 2012. One deciding factor may well be what the users of Facebook and/or Google (maybe that includes you the reader) do in 2012 regarding their interactions with/on the Internet.

The varied opinions are interesting but let us start with some context before reviewing some comments. Nielsen Media Research reported on December 28, 2011 that Google is the number one website accessed in the United States with approximately 153,441,000 unique visitors per month, while Facebook was in second place with about 137,644,000 unique visitors per month.

Dan Tynan, writing on PC World on December 30, 2011, noted that he and millions of other people are using Facebook and Twitter to find new content on the Internet rather than using Google. Paul Allen of Ancestry.com has predicted that Google Plus (Google’s challenger to Facebook in the realm of social networking) could have 400 million users by the end of 2012. (Please see Mr. Allen’s graph below.)

Forbes weighed in on the debate on December 30, 2011 with its article “Facebook vs. Google: The Battle for Internet Dominance” . Facebook remains one of Google’s biggest challenges to internet dominance. Google’s ability to index the World Wide Web has been hindered by Facebook “walling off” its site to Google searches. Another possibility is that Facebook may develop its own search engine.

2012 will be an interesting year to watch as the Facebook-Google rivalry continues…

Always Available eBooks now on OverDrive

Through an agreement between OverDrive and Project Gutenberg, over 23,000 public domain (the copyright has expired) books are now always available to download in eBook format from Toronto Public Library's OverDrive Homepage.

 

These classic books are free for you to download and keep.  You do not need to check them out or return them and they are not included in your 10 item checkout limit in OverDrive.

While this new collection is being added to the library's online catalogue, the best way to have a look this collection is to click on the Additional eBooks. Always Available image on the OverDrive homepage.

Browse by subject or search for a specific title or author.  In addition to classic fiction,  books on many subjects such Arts & Architecture, Cooking and Food, Philosophy, Poetry and Religion are available.

 

The top 5 titles downloaded from Project Gutenberg in November 2011 are:

1. Emma by Jane Austen
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Isabella Beeton
4. The Abbot's Ghost,or Maurice Treherne's Temptation by Louisa May Alcott
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

How to Download from the Always Available eBooks collection from a mobile device:

If you are accessing OverDrive from an internet-enabled mobile device, look for the "Additional eBooks. Always Available." button at the bottom of the OverDrive mobile website.  After clicking Download, you will be prompted to open the eBook in iBooks or another app of your choice.

How to Download from the Always Available eBooks collection to Adobe Digital Editions:

1. Once you have found a book that you would like to download, click on the Download button below the book cover.

2.When the File Download (Internet Explorer) or Opening (Firefox) dialog appears, choose Save to download the file to your computer.

 

 

3. Open Adobe Digital Editions.   If you have not installed this software as yet, it is available for free from Adobe. 

4. Click on the triangle to the right of the word Library and then select Add Item to Library.  Locate the .epub file on your computer and click on Open.

Once the book has been added to your Adobe Digital Editions Library, you can read it on your computer or transfer it to an eReader or other device.

 Enjoy!

What were Canadians’ Top Google Searches in 2011?

Google released its snapshot of the year 2011 by listing the top searches in terms of fastest rising, by images, by news, by “What is…?” and so on. Without getting too personal, what were Canadians looking for? The top 10 fastest rising searches for Canadians using Google had the 2011 Census in first place. Other notable searches included Rebecca Black in fourth spot, Japan Earthquake in sixth position, Jack Layton in eighth place, and Royal Wedding in ninth spot.

The top 10 images searches for Canadians had Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Kim Kardashian in the top three positions respectively. The top 10 Google News searches by Canadians had Japan, Vancouver Canucks, and Libya in first, second, and third place. Fifth spot fell to the Blue Jays; while Stephen Harper was number ten in Google News searches.

In the “What is…?” top 10 search list, Canadians were most interested in “Love”, followed by “Wikipedia”, “Android” and “Tumblr” in the second, third, and fourth positions respectively.

Go to Google Zeitgeist 2011 for full details on the top global Google searches and top searches by other countries (subdivided by continents).

Toronto Public Library offers a series of free Web Basics workshops in various library branch locations to teach people how to search the Internet. Consult the Computer & Library Training list to find a suitable workshop at a convenient location and time. Both basic keyboarding and computer mouse experience are recommended to enroll in the Web Basics workshops.

"I Just Got An eReader. Now What?" (Holiday Edition)

There is a chance that you might find yourself unwrapping an eReader in a week and a half. It will be new, shiny and may have lots of buttons (or very few). You will hopefully remember your manners and thank the person who gave you this gift. Then you might ask, "Now what?"

The library always sees a spike in people looking for ebooks on December 25th and 26th, which makes sense as everyone wants to try out their new toys. If you do get an eReader, you'll want to become familiar with our Overdrive catalog. Overdrive allows you to check out eBooks, eAudiobooks, eMusic and eVideos. The guided tour of Overdrive is a great introduction to the service, while the quick start guide will lead you through the process of downloading the necessary software and checking out books. There is also a My Help! section that gives specific instruction for your device depending on the format you want to download.

You may also want to have a look at our list of Computer & Library Training classes coming up in the new year and find an eBook class at a branch near you. Any class on eBooks will help you become familiar with what the library has to offer and give you the chance to ask questions left unanswered.

Privacy Concerns over Online Behavioural Advertising

Jennifer Stoddart, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, introduced new guidelines to put limits on online behavioural advertising whereby advertisers, browser developers, and websites develop profiling, targeting and tracking data based on a user’s preferences and internet searching history.  The Privacy Commissioner acknowledged that while advertising can be used to subsidize free content on the Internet, nevertheless, online advertising practices must adhere to an individual’s rights to choose and to privacy. Online behavioural advertising is considered an acceptable practice under the federally-regulated, private sector-oriented Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) with the proviso that it is not a service condition. One can read the Privacy Commissioner’s address to the Marketing and the Law Conference on December 6, 2011 by clicking here.

Organizations should be avoiding the use of technology that hinders an individual’s ability to decline being targeted and tracked, for example, device fingerprinting, super cookies, and zombie cookies. Steps should be taken to avoid tracking and targeting children on websites and the internet as they are unlikely able to provide “meaningful consent”. An adult opting out of consent to collect information is deemed to be a reasonable course of action provided that it is easy for that individual to opt-out in an immediate manner, following a clear and understandable explanation of the data collection at or before the time of collection. Any information that is collected and used with consent should be non-sensitive in nature and destroyed in a timely fashion, or alternatively, de-identified from a specific person.

This has implications for Facebook and Google which both use web users’ information to tailor their advertisements to users’ interests and preferences. One can read about Google’s five privacy principles and its privacy policy at the Google Privacy Center as well as accessing privacy tools including Google Dashboard, ads preference manager, data liberation front, keep my opt-outs, web history controls, and search personalization opt-out. Check out Facebook’s Help Center and its privacy page as well as some interactive tools including the ability to preview one’s profile, one’s public search profile, view targeted advertisements without sharing information, download information, and view applications used with varying degrees of permission.

 

Please see also “Protecting Customer Privacy” on the Business & Personal Finance blog.

Getting more out of reading with Social Media I - Goodreads

There are a number of book related websites (Booklamp, Goodreads, Library Thing, Shelfari) that allow you to interact in various ways with other bibliophiles.

I would like to take a closer look at social networks for bibliophiles over the next few months and learn a bit more about their potential to transform the way we share information about books.  This week we'll start with Goodreads.

At 6.5 million users Goodreads is an extremely popular one. If you are familiar with other social networking sites you will find Goodreads has much in common with them. Like Facebook you can make friends.  Like Twitter you can follow others.  The difference is the social networking environment is devoted exclusively to reading.

Registration is a simple matter of providing an e-mail address (which is also your user ID) and coming up with a password.  Don't use your e-mail password though.

Then you can choose to allow it to find contacts in your email address book, or through your Facebook/Twitter accounts or you can opt to skip that step (which involves a separate login and allows Goodreads temporary access to these accounts).

From there you simply select your favourite genres.  For each genre you select, you will be presented with a page of books that fall under that genre.

You can mark the book as something you want to read, or you can rate it on a 1-5 scale 
For each book you select, Goodreads will generate similar titles.  You can spend as much or as little time on each genre that you selected.  But the more books you rate, the more Goodreads will "know" about what sort of books you like and -theoretically at least-, the better it will be able to make recommendations.

When you add a title to "My Books" you can rate it and even review it (if you've got the time).

What makes this a social media of course is the sharing and comparing.  Once you start to collect friends you can compare their ratings to yours, read their reviews and make use of their recommendations. 

Try writing a review,  With any luck you might make review of the week.  Test your erudition with their trivia challenges and games.  See how others are reviewing your books.  Read the newsletter. It's also a good place to keep track of award winners and see what's coming out in e-books.

Just remember to visit TPL's site next and place holds on those books.