Tech News: Google – Recommendation Friend or Privacy Foe? Or Both?

Google Reader recently added some updates – most of which I have appreciated so far. One update is that it now makes recommendations based on your current feed subscriptions and your Google web history. Read more about it in this article.

I mostly read library, education, and technology feeds (and combinations of those three subjects). So, Google Reader recommended these to me today.

Clicking on the View All link gives a longer list with number of subscribers to gauge popularity, and – best of all – the number of posts per week. I have to confess that I have unsubscribed to a couple of feeds simply because I couldn’t keep up with the number of posts.

Now, I appreciate the recommendations, but this brings up the privacy question. So, how much does Google know about me…and the scarier part, how much is it sharing about me?

Of course, I also have to confess that I subscribed to several feeds that were recommended because they were from blogs that interested me. Google has lured me in with tantalizing (and scarily spot-on) recommendations. But, is Google evil? How long do I continue to trade privacy for customized services?

Book News: There’s More than One Way to Digitize a Book

2 Models for Digitizing Collections
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/07/google

A large group of universities, the 12 universities that make up the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, has now partnered with Google to digitize their collections.

However, Emory has chosen a different path. This is discussed in the article, but Library Journal provides a little more explanation.

With Scan Plan, Emory University Takes Control
http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6451403.html?nid=2673#news3

I love the idea of print on demand, and I think this is a great application of that idea. (FYI: I used to be employed by Emory University, and I say YAY! for them.)