Google’s Travel Deal Faces Regulatory Turbulence : NPR

Watching with interest …

I haven’t subscribed to cable for more than 10 years, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Netflix since 2003. More evidence that the rest of America is starting to catch on … Cable subscribers flee, but is Internet to blame?

For live sports, I get much better coverage for the sport I most like to watch, figure skating, via Universal Sports (free over the air in my area) and icenetwork.com than the cable networks ever provided. My annual subscription to Icenetwork costs $39.95, and with that I get unlimited access to live and video-on-demand streaming of complete events from the US and abroad, without annoying ads or commentary inserted into the broadcast. Plus, I have access to an archive of similar content going back to 2007. It’s wonderful! Now, I feel kind of sorry for football and other “major sport” fans who are still subject to the restrictions of exclusive broadcast rights contracts held by major networks and cable companies.

Big news announced today in library land: SkyRiver Files Antitrust Suit Against OCLC

SkyRiver Technologies vs. OCLC (full-text PDF)

It’s hard to imagine that much good will come from this. A whole bunch of resources (time, energy, money) that could otherwise go into enhancing library systems and services will be wasted on this legal battle. Services provided by Google and others will continue to marginalize and undermine libraries, while the “players” in the library sphere squabble themselves into oblivion. Will they take the entire field down with them?

Maybe I’m way behind the times, but just yesterday I discovered a really cool online music service called Last.fm

Based in London, UK, Last.fm markets itself as a music social networking site. You can sign up for a free account (optional to listen to music, but necessary to take advantage of many site features), and then listen to complete music tracks from several major labels for free. You can develop customized playlists and “radio” stations, tag tracks with your own keywords, and find other people to discuss music with. If you sign up for an account and download their special (free) software, the service will learn what types of music you like and recommend similar tracks. It does this based on what you listen to at the Last.fm site and, if you allow it, also what you listen to through other music software (such as iTunes or Windows Media Player) or on your iPod.

Unlike similar services, such as Pandora, you get more control over the music that you hear, and you get links to album and artist information, as well as links to purchase MP3 downloads from retailers such as Amazon.com. This makes the service really nice, like iTunes combined with a customizable online radio station.

Are there other services like this out there?