Audio Book News | Featuring Google Buzz, Amazon and the Twitter Project

G oogle launched its idea of a social media outlet with Buzz last week. It quickly turned into a fiasco as the program immediately took users’ most frequent email contacts and automatically added them to the person’s stream and publicized lists of followers.

Apparently, they thought this would streamline the process used by facebook, where users may utilize their email contacts to find friends. The difference is, on facebook, users choose whether to allow access to those people. Buzz did it automatically.

This raised tons of issues surrounding privacy rights. There are other technical issues that were unappealing to me, like the inability to collapse “buzzes” with tons of comments, but with the privacy questions, I turned off my Buzz.

The question for today is: Will this gaffe affect today’s hearings before the court? Google is pushing for a deal to digitize out of print books, but the privacy concerns, permission issues, and questionable antitrust are all still part of the discussion.

Amazon:

Meanwhile, Amazon just keeps moving ahead. Now that Kindle has gone international, they have added a free Kindle application for BlackBerry devices. This app is similar to that currently available for the iPhone and may be used to download and read eBooks. The next step for Amazon will be versions of their app for Mac computers and the new iPad.

DOD:

The MyiLibrary Audiobook inventory for the Department of Defense will make nearly 3,000 digital downloadable audiobooks available to those in military service, their dependents, and members of the National Guard. Thanks to the Ingram Content Group, Inc., books from numerous publishers will be offered through DOD Morale, Welfare & Recreation library web sites. What a fantastic way to support our troops!

Twitter Project:

The Twitter book project with Meg Cabot is off to a very… bizarre start. Our gal protagonist has been recruited to fight zombie supermodels because her saliva is an antidote. Really. Because the Twitterverse is that diverse. Check out the story thus far by clicking the link above and join in by labeling your tweets with @BBCAA #bbcawdio. Look for my tweets, @WotV, along with my friend @terencewest. We have teamed up as Fighting Badgers. Don’t ask why. Really. Don’t.

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Tagged as: Amazon, Audio Book News, digital downloadable audiobooks, free Kindle application, Google Buzz