Bookish Techy Week in Review

New tools to write and publish, lost books find a home, James Bond goes e-rogue, and a look under Google Books' hood.

Another bookish-techy week has come and gone. Along the way, much coolness — and some not-so-coolness. Read on …

Cool new ways to write and publish

The government hires DRM basher Ed Felten

Ars Technica sums up the news:

Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten today was tapped for a one-year stint at the FTC in a decision so shockingly sane it’s still a bit hard to believe.

The Lost Book Sales site launches

James Bond goes e-bookishly rogue

Alexis Madrigal asks “How does Google Books work?”

The system they’ve come up with has become increasingly sophisticated, as highlighted by their latest tweak, Rich Results … When you search for a book, Google Books doesn’t just look at word frequency or how closely your query matches the title of a book. They now take into account web search frequency, recent book sales, the number of libraries that hold the title, and how often an older book has been reprinted.

Diesel ebookstore assesses the Agency Model

In other words, the A5 performed an impressive near-checkmate on the eBook chessboard. And everyone, except for Amazon and perhaps a few authors, is as pleased as punch. Or are they?

Not so cool

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