How We Used the Web in 2010: generation by generation

The Pew Internet and American Life Project's annual survey on our Internet behavoir has been released. Check out the summary below to see how you compare to the rest of your generation, or read the full Generations Online 2010 report. 

Don't Spend the Holidays Stuck in Traffic - Use the Web

AAA projects 92.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the year-end holidays. Of these, the majority (93%) will be traveling by road. With so many of us planning to hit the highway over the next few days, combined with road construction and the possibility of winter storms, spending part of the holidays stuck in traffic is a very real possibility.

Local news and radio keeps us well informed for the local area. Use the websites below to check conditions for other areas. Many of these sites use the 511 standard traffic map. Just tick the box for ‘Traffic Speed’ and click 'Update Map’. Look for areas of red and avoid them. Use Google Maps or Mapquest to find alternative routes. And with the price of gas averaging over $3.00/gal for the first time this year, its more important than ever to get the best price on gas. You can use the Web for that, too.
Ohio: www.buckeyetraffic.org/
Columbus: www.pavingtheway.org/projects/
Pennsylvania: www.511pa.com/Traffic.aspx
PA Turnpike: http://www.paturnpike.com/improve/conschedule.aspx
Kentucky: http://511.ky.gov/kyhb/main.jsf
Indiana: www.in.gov/indot/2351.htm
Indianapolis: http://pws.trafficwise.org/ipws/ci/

More Library eBooks for iPads!

A few weeks ago we told you about a new app, that allows eBooks borrowed from the library to be read on Apple's mobile devices. Now, we bring you even more good news.  The folks at OverDrive, the company that supplies the library's digital collection, have developed an app for iPhone/iPad/iTouch and Android. The app supports both eBooks and audiobooks.  Our library's digital collection is now compatible with the majority of e-readers.

OverDrive Media Console for iPhone & Android:

• Combines eBooks and audiobooks into a single app
• Enables over-the-air downloading
• Streamlines the browse, checkout and download experience on your phone.

Get the app today and download library books on the go!

How the Mobile Web Will Change Your Life

WCPL patrons who have embraced the "mobile web" (accessing the Internet while on-the-go, from your smartphone or other device) already know they can search the library catalog, check their library account, IM research questions to a librarian, and access databases, from anywhere, at anytime using the library's mobile services. This interesting article from The Wall Street Journal discusses another way the mobile web will impact our daily activities.

The rise of price-comparison apps for smartphones and the ability to place orders directly from a mobile device saves shoppers both time and money.  Great for bargain hunters, not great for stores. Has the way we shop changed forever?

From WSJ 12/15/10:
Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers
By MIGUEL BUSTILLO And ANN ZIMMERMAN

Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend. Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.

.Mr. Tang bought the Garmin from Amazon right on the spot.

[...]

Mr. Tang's smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a "new era of price transparency"—and its arrival is threatening to upend the business models of the biggest store chains in America. Until recently, retailers could reasonably assume that if they just lured shoppers to stores with enticing specials, the customers could be coaxed into buying more profitable stuff, too. Now, marketers must contend with shoppers who can use their smartphones inside stores to check whether the specials are really so special, and if the rest of the merchandise is reasonably priced.

[...]
Smartphone fans such as Mr. Tang are still a small subset of shoppers. It remains unclear whether large numbers of Americans will be willing to take the extra time to compare offers with mobile programs. Some consumers may want to deploy the technology only when buying expensive or unusual items. Still, store chains are increasingly concerned about the ability of mobile-equipped shoppers to tilt the balance of power in retailing toward consumers—in part because their numbers are quickly rising. 
[...]
E-commerce experts expect use of shopping apps to mushroom as more Americans purchase smartphones. Dozens of mobile shopping apps are already available through Apple Inc.'s iTunes, and programmers are busy developing many more to transform smartphones into shopping weapons. Many of them use phone cameras to photograph bar codes and QR codes, or simply let users speak a product's name into their devices. [READ THE FULL ARTICLE...]

Free Shipping Day - Dec 17th

The third annual Free Shipping Day is scheduled for this Friday, Dec 17. More than 1,000 online retailers will be offering free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve.  Who says procrastination doesn't pay?

Visit http://www.freeshippingday.com/ to see participating retailers. Details of each retailer's offer, including required minimum purchase and any restrictions, will be posted on the site at 12:00 AM on December 17th.    

Gifts for Book Lovers

Are you struggling to find a unique gift for the book lover on your list? Visit these little-known sites to find the perfect gift. 

Out of Print Clothing         
Buy your book lover a tee featuring the cover art from his/her favorite book. Out of Print Clothing celebrates the world’s great stories through fashion. Shirts feature iconic book covers. Some are classics, some just make great shirts, but all are striking works of art. The company donates one book for every shirt sold to Books for Africa.

American Library Association Store       
Not just for librarians, the ALA store features book and reading related gifts for all ages. My favorites are the I Read Banned Books bracelet and the range of ‘Born to Read’ baby gear.

Postcards from Penguin 
A collection of 100 postcards, each featuring a different and iconic Penguin book jacket. From classics to crime, here are over seventy years of design in one box. 

ABE Books
Abe specializes in rare, unusual and out-of-print books, and also stocks first editions and signed books. Score an autographed first edition of your book lover’s fave and you’re a shoe-in for best gift of the year. If the book lover on your list has a quirky sense of humor, be sure to check out the Weird Book Room, which currently features How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them, and the Pop-Up Book of Phobias.

NYT 100 Most Notable Books of 2010
What better gift for a book lover than a book? Check out the New York Times list of the most notable books of the year to find the perfect one.

Top Ten Searches of 2010

What did Americans want to know about this year? Yahoo! has released its annual top ten list of most popular searches.  This year's list contains 6 celebrities, a TV show, a sporting event and a gadget. And for the first time ever, the number one most-searched-for item was a news story. Americans searched for information about the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and resulting oil spill more than any other topic in 2010.

Yahoo!'s Top Ten Searches of 2010                               
1. BP Oil Spill
2.World Cup
3.Miley Cyrus
4.Kim Kardashian
5.Lady Gaga
6.iPhone
7.Megan Fox
8.Justin Bieber
9.American Idol
10.Britney Spears

Library eBooks for iPads

Strictly speaking, the library’s eBook collection is not compatible with the iPad, iTouch or iPhone, but a new app, the Bluefire Reader, allows savvy eBook users to transfer library eBooks from Adobe Digital Editions to their Apple device.

The Bluefire Reader app is available to download from iTunes and the Apple app store. Be prepared to invest a little time and effort getting to know it. (But you won't have to invest money - the app is free!)
You will need to:

• download the Bluefire Reader app to your mobile device
• download Adobe Digital Editions and iTunes to your computer
• register your Bluefire Reader and Adobe Digital Editions with your personal Adobe ID.

Take a moment to read through the process and decide if you’d like to give it a try. Complete instructions are available here: http://www.bluefirereader.com/help/libraryBooks.html