LISNews: Librarian News

Google\'s
News Search, while still calling
itself \"beta,\" is already an \"alpha\" amongst news
search engines.  Its news breakdown includes: Top
Stories / World
/  U.S.
/ Business
/ Sci/Tech
/ Sports
/ Entertainment
& Health.

Like AltaVista\'s news
search (via Moreover), Google
is including thumbnails of photographs from some news stories, though Google
is being far more aggressive in its \'transformative fair use\' of the images. 
Google is also a NYTimes partner,
offering direct, \'no registration needed\' links to NYTimes articles.

Some of the most useful features are the \"related\" links that
bring up similar articles from any of about 4,000 news sources currently
being crawled by Google.  The \"In the News\" feature appears
to be a top 10 Zeitgeist
of current news events.  Doing a news search defaults to \"Sorted
by relevance,\" so click the \"Sort by date\" button for a 30 day
chronological display of backdated news articles.  Read more: about
google news.
-Hermit
!-)

When Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page first hatched the idea of Google in their Stanford dorm room in 1998 I doubt they knew what a good idea they had. Google is no longer just a search engine, for many, it is the primary way to find information on the Web. People don’t search any more, they “Google.” If you’re like most librarians, searching the Web has become one of your primary job functions. (your secondary tasks probably include email, and of course, meetings.) If you’re like me, when you’re searching the web, you’re using Google. Google’s not the only game in town, but it is clearly the search engine of choice for most librarians. -- Read More

Associated Press Says China has blocked access to Google. Attempts to look at the site through Chinese Internet services on Tuesday were rejected with a notice saying it couldn\'t be found. Users and technical consultants who monitor the Chinese Internet said the site has been blocked for several days.

There was no immediate explanation for the blocking and representatives for Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., were not immediately available for comment.

The NYTimes has one of those Sky Is Falling Stories that says the combined power of the Internet, search engines and archival databases can enable almost anyone to find information about almost anyone else, possibly to satiate a passing curiosity.

\"If you are living in a new town trying to be hidden, it\'s pretty easy to find you now between Google and online government records,\" said Cindy Southworth, who develops technology education programs for victims of domestic violence. \"Many public entities are putting everything on the Web without thinking through the ramifications of those actions.\"