A settlement has been reached that could put an end to two years of class action and other lawsuits against Google for its Google Book Search service.  The summary of the agreement appears in a press release by the American Association of Authors (AAP).

• More Access to Out-of-Print Books — Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
• Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books – Building off publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
• Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online – Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
• Free Access From U.S. Libraries – Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
• Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works — Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.

User access features of the agreement have been described as follows:

• Preview — Allows users to freely preview a limited number of pages of in-copyright works to help users decide if the book is right for them to buy. Generally, out-of-print books will be available for preview, and in-print books will not unless the rightsholder decides to activate previews through their participation in this settlement or through the Book Search Partner Program.
• Consumer Purchase — Offers individual users the ability to purchase access to view an entire in-copyright book online.  The rightsholder may set the price or allow the price to be set by a Google algorithm.
• Institutional Subscription — For academic, corporate, and government organizations.  Gives members of the institution full access to in-copyright, out-of-print books.
• Free Public Library Access — Authorizes free, full-text, online viewing of in-copyright, out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries at no charge to the library or the reader, with added revenues to the rightsholders through per page printing fees.
• Future Services — The agreement allows for other services and uses, such as Print-On-Demand, Consumer Subscription and others, to be agreed in the future.

The agreement still requires approval by the court.

For readers and researchers, this deal is substantial.  I believe that making out-of-print books available through this service will rejuvenate the industry and perhaps serve as a barometer for which books could be identifies as candidates for reprinting.  I also like the agreement on free access from libraries (unfortunately, access will be limited to libraries in the United States).

This settlement will likely put more pressure on the music industry to identify creative solutions to its outdated business models.

This seems pretty basic and yet people still seem to get this wrong.

If you’re starting a new site, be sure to do a Google search on your desired site name(s) and URLs to make sure the exact name and/or URL, or closely similar names and/or URLs are not already taken. This is particularly important if you plan to use the exact name or a close variant of a popular site in the exact same niche. It only takes a few minutes to do the research. The tools are amazingly easy to use and are completely free.

When you launch a new site, take at least five minutes to do your due diligence.

Being unique is important. If you do something similar to someone else, using the same site name and an only slightly different URL, it’s going to be confusing for the public and it’s going to split search engine results. On top of everything else, it’s not going to do anything to help you build your own unique brand and community.

I’m probably the last person in the world to figure out that Gmail is pretty smart with the way it handles events embedded within email messages; even multiple events. The fact is, I probably never paid attention to the the right-hand column of the page when I read my email because I figured that I was being presented with advertising I wasn’t interested in.

It turns out that Gmail has the intelligence to identify date and time relevant text in an email message and offers you the ability to add, separately, any number of events identified in the email to your Google Calendar (click here to see an image).

I’ve long believed that those who declare that they are experts, are not. This makes it all the more surprising that I proclaimed myself a “podcasting expert” on my website last week. I did so in response to a suggestion that while people can make their own judgements about me, Google needs to be told who I am and what I know. And when Google is told, it responds. It took only 12 hours for me to appear in the number five spot out of 14,600,000. I’m interested to see how quickly I fall off the chart now that I’ve removed the claim.

I feel confident and proud enough to say that I am good at what I do. And yet, even after editing, producing and/or hosting 446 448 podcast episodes of different varieties and styles, both personally and for clients, I have a lot to learn.

To me, an expert is someone who has exhausted all learning and has nowhere else to go in their field. I am not comfortable with that label and, quite frankly, I hope I never achieve it.

Suppose you were building an empire of great online communications technologies. You’d probably have your eyes on Feedburner, right? Do you have Google’s money? Google does, and according to reports it has taken your $100-million idea.

It’s an obvious fit and you can read a good analysis of the deal on Paul Colligan’s blog.

Tod Maffin said that the problem with being a futurist is that people hold you to account when you “get it wrong”. So, I will say that this post is a combination of my (ahem) predictions and hopes for 2007.

In no particular order…

1) Podcast and RSS distribution networks will become more influential

They have separated indie bands from those signed to major labels, and they will start to increase the gap between the basement Podcasters and those who produce “gold” or have connections or money — distribution networks will bridge the gap between the producers and consumers via those who can repackage and mass-circulate content to those with influence and large audiences.

2) Apple’s M4A will become widely available

Whether through affordable licensing options or released to the public domain, Apple will make its proprietary M4A file format widely available. In fact, this will be the first step towards Apple making it possible for any portable player to hook into iTunes thus increasing the profile of its powerful online music store.

3) Tracking tools will be developed

Some genius will develop a tool to track and report on Podcast listen details (time of listen, length of listen, fast-forwards, etc…) from a portable or computer player to the creator. Who will be the first? iTunes? Microsoft? iRiver? PodPress?

4) Google will index audio

Google will launch an extremely accurate speech-to-text translator that will index audio content from RSS feeds, leaving PodScope and Podzinger in its wake.

5) Powerful commenting functions

It will become easier for listeners to participate in the conversation when someone rolls out a feature that makes it possible to cache a text or audio comment that will be sent to the Podcast producer the next time the device is synced with a computer.

6) Taking managing the media to the next level

Political parties and companies will eliminate press releases and refuse interviews, replacing them with internally produced Podcasts (audio and video) as a way to manage their public image and press relations. They will create their own reports and sound-bites and publish them through RSS using an open license for reuse by media organizations.

Here’s to the year that was, and the year that will be!

Robert Safuto of Awakened Voice is creating Awakened Voice Tutorials in Quicktime format.  Each installment demonstrates a way to use a particular tool in the Social Media space.  To date, the series includes instructional videos entitled Subscribing to Podcasts with iTunes, Enhance RSS with FeedBurner, and Uploading to Google Video.