Amazon is often portrayed in the media as an unstoppable behemoth indiscriminately crushing everything from indie bookstores to big box stores on its way to world domination. But recently more have started to question that narrative. Amazon’s July attempt at entering the smartphone market was a highly-publicized disaster, but critics are pointing to far more […]
Do eBooks Do More Harm Than Good?
This week Wired published a provocative article about ebooks. In the piece, titled “The Abomination of eBooks,” author Art Brodsky points out how the applicable rules for ebooks are fundamentally different than those for print books; in particular ebooks are leased rather than actually bought and owned. Because of this, he argues that it doesn’t make […]
The Past Present and Future of Cloud Computing
Note from the editor: This is an article by Jeff Fields. If you’re interested in contributing to Social Web Q and A, check out our guest post guidelines. In basic terms, cloud computing consists of using a central network of data servers and CPUs with their attendant memory and processing power as a multi-user accessible […]
What is a Vertical Search Engine?
Q: What’s a vertical search engine? Is Google one, or is it something else? When we think of search engines, Google typically comes to mind first. This is perfectly natural, since they own a dominating market share over Yahoo and Bing, the closest competitors. But there are plenty of other search engines that stick to […]
Personal Cloud Computing Services: the Future of the Web?
Q: I keep hearing about cloud computing but never with a clear definition. How does it affect me and will it really be the future of the web? Just about everyone in the industry is in agreement that the future of computing is “on the cloud.” Cloud computing has already started to revolutionize the way […]
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