October 2006 NEOCAG Quarterly

AOL's free Internet client software has earned the company a slap on the wrist from StopBadware.org, a consortium set up to combat malicious software. In a report set to be recently released, the group advises users to steer clear of the software because of its "badware behavior."

The report blasts the free version of AOL 9.0 because it "interferes with computer use," and because of the way it meddles with components such as the Internet Explorer browser and the Windows taskbar. The suite is also criticized for engaging in "deceptive installation" and faulted because some components fail to uninstall.

The main problem is that AOL simply doesn't properly inform users of what its software will do to their PCs, said John Palfrey, StopBadware.org's co-director. "We don't think that the disclosure is adequate and there are certain mistakes in the way the software is architected in terms of leaving some programs behind," he said. "When there are large programs, some of which stay around after you've thought you've uninstalled them, they need to be disclosed to the user."

Because AOL has taken steps to address StopBadware.org's concerns, the group has held off on officially rating AOL 9.0 as badware, Palfrey said.

Still, the report is not good news for AOL. Other software that has been the target of StopBadware.org reports includes Kazaa, the Jessica Simpson Screensaver, and the Starware News Toolbar.

Backed by tech companies such as Google, Lenovo Group, and Sun Microsystems, StopBadware.org bills itself as a "Neighborhood Watch" of the Internet. It is run out of two well-respected university departments: Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and University of Oxford's Internet Institute in the U.K.

Today's report states that AOL is taking steps to address StopBadware.org's concerns, and that the company has confirmed that there is a design flaw in its uninstaller software, according to a draft obtained by IDG News.

AOL executives could not immediately be reached to comment for this story, no surprise since AOL has been struggling through some major changes of late.

It has opened up its once-private network, offering the AOL 9.0 software for free in a bid to attract new users and boost online advertising as its traditional subscribers have fled. The company now has 17.7 million U.S. subscribers, a drop of 3.1 million over the past year.

Last week, three AOL executives, including Chief Technology Officer Maureen Govern left the company in the wake of a scandal over AOL's public disclosure of more than 2 million search queries made by 650,000 AOL users.

AOL has also come under fire for licensing its free antivirus software, called Active Virus Shield, with what anti-adware advocates view as excessive advertising and data gathering provisions.

Since the search disclosure, AOL has taken steps to restore consumer trust, said Chief Executive Officer Jon Miller in a recent e-mail to employees. "There is a tremendous responsibility that goes along with our mission of serving consumers online," he wrote. "We have to earn their trust each and every day and with each and every action we take." StopBadware.org's reports can be found online.

Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (News Yahoo!)

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> GPS Coordinates In Death Notice

The Q recently received the following Email from Jerry Kliot. "I was in Ligonier, PA two weeks ago and spotted the following death notice. "

<Emanuel M. "Manny" Snyder,77, of Hilltop Drive, Scottdale (East Huntingdon Township), passed away at 7:19 a.m., Monday, Aug. 14, 2006, at his residence. Family and friends were received from 1 to 9 p.m.Tuesday at the ROBERT B.FERGUSON FUNERAL HOME, 105 Spring St.,Scottdale (724-887-5300 / e-mail: fergfh@verizon.net /

<<GPS: N40 degrees 06.136, W79 degrees 35.278>>

where a prayer service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, Scottdale, with the Rev. Father Leonard W. Stoviak as celebrant. Grave-side committal services and interment will follow in the church cemetery. Love Lasts Forever!>

Many thanks to Jerry for discovering this wonderful example of the use of coordinates as a tool in our genealogy efforts. For years we've have had discussions with knowledgeable people in the hope that someone could show us a method to pinpoint locations of grave sites or lots where old farm buildings used to stand centuries ago, etc.--and here it is--better than we could have hoped for. We have had two or three NEOCAG presentations on this topic, and Jerry's note validates our efforts.

Hopefully some of our members will discover other ways of using it as well—please share with us your experiences. I have now created COORDINATES: tags that I can insert with any of the headings in my software (Birth, Marriage, Death, Burial)—and thanks to Google EARTH I have already been able to include satellite photos of some locations in my family database. How about that for a high tech genealogy effort? ----------LO

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> Google Provides Printable Versions Of Classic Books On Internet

Two months ago we sent out a special edition of the QUARTERLY devoted entirely to an article: Building The Digital Library, by Mary Sue Coleman—President of the University of Michigan. She describes Google's planned scanning of all the books of the world's great libraries. I have to admit that to me there seemed a bit of the "pie in the sky" if for no other reason that Google seemed to be coming out with a startling new piece of software almost every week. Well, dear friends, all the pie is right here and it is FANTASTIC! After reading this article I just stopped, went to the sight below, and (as the kids say) was just blown away. I don't need to say more, because you can do the same thing right now. ----------LO

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google made classic literary works available for free download in printable format as part of its controversial quest to make the world's books available online. No longer copyrighted works such as Dante Alighieri's "Inferno" and Victor Hugo's "Marion de Lorme," can be printed out at the Google Book Search website http://books.google.com, according to the company.

"Users can search and read these books on Google Book Search like always, but now you can also download and print them to enjoy at your own pace," the Mountain View, California company said in a release.

"We do not enable downloading of any books under copyright." With copyrighted material, Google only displays basic information and snippets of text along with information regarding where to get the books, according to the company.

Google has established partnerships with major libraries to make more books available online.

"Public domain books include both well-known classics and less well-known books on every conceivable subject," said Sidney Verba, director of the Harvard University Library, which is a partner in the Google project.

"Since people can search the full text of these books, they can find previously buried information about historical events or people, places of interest and matters cultural or scientific." Books that can be downloaded for printing at Google Book Search had a "Full View" button that could be clicked to retrieve the files.

Wed Aug 30, ET Yahoo! News

Comment

After searching Ancestry.com and all of the other family history websites for ancestors and hitting a brick wall on some of them, I tried Google. Google offers a book search section (http://books.google.com/) where you can type in a name or place and find all kinds of information on a family member or the history of a town. You have to register with the site but it is well worth the time and effort. Some of the books are full view, meaning that the whole book can be viewed. Others have limited views or snippet views. You can find out where to purchase a particular book if you wish. There are many town histories available and even family histories. I have found my great-grandfather in one of the town histories. Kathy Bishop, 21 August 2006

University of California By unlocking the wealth of information maintained within our libraries and exposing it to the latest that search technologies have to offer, the University of California is continuing its work to harness technology and our library collections in support of research, learning, patient care, and cultural engagement. In this new world, people will make connections between information and ideas that were hitherto inaccessible, driving the pace of innovation in all areas of life – academic, economic, and civic – and enhancing the use of the world's great libraries.

– Daniel Greenstein, Associate Vice Provost for Scholarly Information and University Librarian

Harvard University The new century presents important new opportunities for libraries, including Harvard's, and for those individuals who use them. The collaboration between major research libraries and Google will create an important public good of benefit to students, teachers, scholars, and readers everywhere. The project harnesses the power of the Internet to allow users to identify books of interest with a precision and at a speed previously unimaginable. The user will then be guided to find books in local libraries or to purchase them from publishers and book vendors. And, for books in the public domain, there will be even broader access."

– Sidney Verba, Director of the Harvard University Library

University of Michigan The project with Google is core to our mission as a great public university to advance knowledge — on campus and beyond. By joining this partnership that makes our library holdings searchable through Google, UM serves as an agent in an initiative that radically increases the availability of information to the public. The University of Michigan embraces this project as a means to make information available as broadly and conveniently as possible. We believe that, beyond providing basic access to library collections, this activity is critically transformative, enabling the University Library to build on and reconceive vital library services for the new millennium. This work will create new ways for users to search and access library content, opening up our collections to our own users and to users throughout the world.

– John P. Wilkin, Associate University Librarian

The New York Public Library The New York Public Library Research Libraries were struck by the convergence of Google's mission with their own. We see the digitization project as a transformational moment in the access to information and wanted not only to learn from it but also to influence it. Our response at present is a conservative one, with a limited number of volumes in excellent condition, in selected languages and in the public domain. With appropriate evaluation of this limited participation, we look forward to a more expansive collaboration in the future."

– David Ferriero, Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries, The New York Public Library

Oxford University The Bodleian Library's mission, from its founding in 1602, has been based on Sir Thomas Bodley's vision of a library serving the worldwide 'Republic of Letters', with the Library's collections open to all who have need to use them. To this day over 60% of readers who use and work in the Bodleian Library have no direct affiliation with the University of Oxford . The Google Library Project in Oxford testifies to our ongoing commitment to enable and facilitate access to our content for the scholarly community and beyond. The initiative will carry forward Sir Thomas Bodley's vision and the ethos of the Bodleian Library into the digital age, allowing readers from around the world to access the Library's collections over the World Wide Web."

– Ronald Milne, Acting Director of Oxford University Library & Bodley's Librarian

Stanford University Stanford has been digitizing texts for years now to make them more accessible and searchable, but with books, as opposed to journals, such efforts have been severely limited in scope for both technical and financial reasons. The Google arrangement catapults our effective digital output from the boutique scale to the truly industrial. Through this program and others like it, Stanford intends to promote learning and stimulate innovation."

– Michael A. Keller, University Librarian

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> Jewish Genealogy Blog--”Tracing The Tribe”

Schelly Talalay Dardashti has created a new Jewish genealogy blog called "Tracing the Tribe." It started a short time ago, coinciding with with the beginning of the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (ICJG). The blog will continue after the conference.

I took a look at this new blog. As you might expect with anything new, there aren't many articles there yet. However, the ones that I did see included:

· At the ICJG: Music to our ears

· At the ICJG: Six of the six million

· At the ICJG: Soap star tells how to teach kids via genealogy

· At the ICJG: The eyes have it

· At the ICJG: An army of volunteers

· Requesting help on Romanian roots

· Set in stone

· Got a Chochka?

· Images of the past and present

· Your host

· What to expect from Tracing the Tribe

Schelly is highly qualified to write about Jewish genealogy. A native New Yorker, Schelly Talalay Dardashti was the Jewish genealogy columnist for the Jerusalem Post’s City Lights/Metro weekly from 1999-2005 and writes on genealogy for www.ynetnews.com. She has written for JTA, Reform Judaism, Outlook (Women’s League of Conservative Judaism), and many Jewish papers. She has taught online Jewish genealogy courses for www.ancestry.com and www.myfamily.com, hands-on workshops in Barcelona and is president of the five-branch JFRA Israel genealogy society. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, JewishGen’s Belarus SIG and Sefard Forum, American Jewish Press Association. Since 1989, she has been researching and keeping the family records for her TALALAY family (Spain, Belarus) and her husband’s DARDASHTI family (Iran). You can find "Tracing the Tribe" at http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com

Posted by Dick Eastman on August 15, 2006

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> Allen County Public Library

This renowned collection includes more than 332,000 printed volumes and 362,000 items of microfilm and microfiche. Patrons of the department also have access to major online databases at: · Ancestry.com · HeritageQuestOnline.com · NewEnglandAncestors.org

As a cooperating partner with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the department can provide access to more than 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical and historical records for a small handling fee per roll of film requested. Due to the collection's size and continuous growth, the information in the following holdings summary will necessarily be brief and representative in nature.

Be sure to use the library’s online catalog to prepare for your trip. It will assist in orienting you to the scope of our collection and help you to plan your actual research time in the department. [If you have bookmarked this page, be sure to check the library’s main web page <www.ACPL.Lib.in.us> for any important news and announcements regarding hours or closures.]

Librarians experienced in genealogical research are always on duty to answer your questions. Please notify us in advance if you plan to bring a group. Open hours are: Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Closed on Sundays, Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day)Visitor and Convention Bureau.

The Allen County community and its library have invested consequential resources to build and maintain this stellar research collection. Ensuring the future growth and viability of the collection requires cooperative partnerships and wide-ranging support. We welcome contributions to the Historical Genealogy Endowment Fund. Contributors to this fund demonstrate in a tangible way their support for the Historical Genealogy Department, ensuring its tradition of excellence for the benefit of future family historians everywhere. Please inquire for more details.

Following is a partial listing of the extensive resources of the historical genealogy department of the Allen County Public Library. A complete list may be obtained from their web site.

Family Histories

More than 50,000 volumes of compiled genealogies represent work already done on American and European families, and range from brief typescripts to well documented multi-volume works. Nearly 5000 genealogies on microfiche and numerous family newsletters complement this collection

Census Records FEDERAL: ·

All population schedules 1790-1930 ·

All available statewide indexes & soundexes ·

All extant mortality schedules 1850-1880 ·

All extant schedules of Civil War Union veterans and widowsF1890 ·

Agricultural and Manufacturing schedules for Indiana 1850-1880

STATE & TERRITORIAL (coverage varies by year): ·

Passengers Lists

Most National Archives passenger lists and indexes on microfilm are available in the department, as are most major printed sources for immigration records. The Five Major Ports of Entry: ·

Baltimore: - Lists 1820-1909 - Quarterly abstracts of lists 1820-69 - Soundex indexes 1820-97, 1833-66, 1897-1952 ·

Boston: - Lists 1820-1943 & Index 1848-91 ·

New Orleans: - Lists 1820-1902 - Quarterly abstracts of lists 1820-75 - Indexes pre-1900, 1900-52 ·

New York: - Lists 1820-1940 - Indexes 1820-46, 1897-1902 - Soundex index 1902-43 ·

Philadelphia: - Lists 1800-1945 & Index 1800-1906 - Soundex index 1883-1948 ·

Lists and/or indexes for 68 minor ports 1820-1954. Other Ports of Entry: ·

Index to misc. Atlantic and Gulf coast ports 1820-74 ·

Index to AL, FL, GA and SC lists 1890-1924 ·

Soundex to Canadian border entries, St. Albans, VT district, 1895-1924 and 1924-52; with partial manifests 1924-49 ·

Index of Passengers Arriving at Detroit, MI, 1906-1954 ·

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Galveston, TX, 1896-1951 ·

Filby's Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. ·

Famine Immigrants: Lists of Irish Immigrants arriving at...New York 1846-1851. ·

German Immigrants...from Bremen to New York 1847-1867. ·

Germans to America 1840-1897. (in progress)

Military Records

Holdings include most microfilmed National Archives service and pension records covering every conflict from the Revolutionary War through the Philippine Insurrection. Civil War regimental histories on microfiche, and significant microfilmed Confederate records from state archives are also included. The excellent collection of related printed references contains adjutant generals' reports, lineage society publications, soldiers' diaries, and more than 1000 regimental histories. The military collection is now expanding into data on 20th and 21st century conflicts with additions of unit histories for WWI and WWII, and casualty lists for the Korean War, Vietnam War and Persian Gulf area engagements.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1775-83) ·

General Index & Compiled Service Records of Soldiers in the American Army ·

Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications ·

Bounty Land Warrants - Ohio Military District ·

Virginia Half Pay and related Pension Applications ·

Revolutionary War Rolls (Commanding Officers' Reports) 1775-83 ·

Index to Records of Soldiers in CT units ·

Index & Service Records of Naval Personnel ·

Misc. Numbered Records in the War Dept. Collection 1775-1790s with Index ·

Central Treasury Records, Military Affairs 1775-89 ·

American Loyalist Claims, Series I and II ·

British Troops, orders, returns, accounts, etc. 1776-81 Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers 1784-1811 Index Register of U.S. Army Enlistments 1798-1914 WAR OF 1812 (1812-15) · Index to Compiled Service Records · Index to Pension Applications

Military Bounty Land Warrants ·

Seamen's Protective Certificate Applications, Port of Philadelphia 1812-15 ·

War of 1812 Papers

WORLD WAR I ·

Draft Registration Cards ·

Growing collection of unit and divisional histories.

KOREAN WAR (1950-53) AND VIETNAM WAR ·

Korean Conflict Casualty File, 1950-57 ·

Combat Area Casualties, Southeast Asia, 1957-86 · Vietnam Veterans Memorial Directory of Names U.S. Local Records. Nearly 200,000 printed volumes are testimony to the department's efforts to comprehensively collect U.S. genealogy and local history publications. All the standard reference works are here, including The American Genealogical-Biographical Index and the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections. County and town histories, vital, cemetery, church, court, land, probate and naturalization records can all be accessed through department catalogs. Standard statewide references and finding aids for eastern states are on the browsing shelves for patrons' convenience. Significant collections of microfilmed local records, such as the North Carolina Core Collection, are available for: CT, IL, IN, KY, MA, NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VT and WV. Smaller microfilmed collections are available for other states. Additional microtext sources which complement the outstanding print collection include the Genealogy & Local History Series on microfiche, and microfilmed county histories for CA, IL, IN, MI, NY, OH, PA and WI. Miscellaneous U.S. Records

Several important manuscript collections and reprint series of regional or national scope are contained in the department's microtext holdings. These include: ·

Library of Congress Land Ownership Maps ·

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Indiana ·

Draper Manuscript Collection & Shane Papers ·

Robert R. Livingston Papers (NY) ·

American Home Missionary Society Papers 1816-1894 ·

American Missionary Association Manuscripts 1839-1882 ·

Boston Transcript "Notes and Queries" columns · Colonial newspapers from MD, PA and VA Native American Records.

Please consult the department's Bibliography of Sources for Native American Family History which details print and microtext holdings by state and by tribe. Important microtext records include: ·

Please consult African American Genealogy: A Bibliography and Guide to Sources (Fort Wayne, IN: Round Tower Books, 2000) which details print and microtext holdings by state. Important microtext records include: ·

All federal census slave schedules 1850 and 1860 ·

Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War ·

Freedmen's Bureau (1865-70) and Freedmen's Savings & Trust Co. (1865-74) Records ·

Pennsylvania Abolition Society Papers ·

Slavery in Ante-Bellum Southern Industries ·

State Slavery Statutes Canadian Records The department houses a significant collection of Canadiana, especially for the eastern provinces. Print sources include county and town histories, cemetery records, and almost all available published French Canadian parish registers and marriage repertoires. Please consult the French Canadian & Acadian Genealogy pathfinder for further details. Genealogical society publications including the Index to the 1871 Census of Ontario are also held.

This part of the collection contains more than 15,000 printed volumes including county histories, monumental inscriptions, heraldic references, early parish registers and most English county record society publications. For further details consult the department's Irish Genealogy and British Genealogy pathfinders.

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> DNA Project to Give Holocaust Survivors Answers About Families

Powerful new tools -- including software created by Gene Codes Corp. to help identify remains of 9/11 terrorist attack victims -- are being applied to solve mysteries that remain from the Holocaust of World War II.

The DNA Shoah project, announced last month by Gene Codes founder Howard Cash at the Human Genome Organization meeting in Finland, could be the most extensive DNA detective undertaking ever if organizers succeed in collecting DNA samples from even a fraction of the 300,000 Holocaust survivors around the world.

The DNA Shoah Project plans to establish a genetic database of those who lost family during the Holocaust. A DNA database can help identify those victims who were murdered by the Nazi regime and/or who died because of wartime-related issues and are buried throughout Europe in unmarked and mass graves. Most of the 6 million Jews who were murdered were not cremated but buried after their death. In many cases, DNA can be obtained from the bones of these victims when they are disinterred. Remains of Holocaust victims continue to surface throughout Europe because of continual land development. Until this project, there has been no means to positively identify the victims. Establishing the DNA database now will begin a process that will carry far into the next millennium. The DNA Shoah Project can also serve to unite loved ones and further establish closure for families who have missing relatives. The database is being created to assist European governments in the identification of victims and will not be used for any other purpose.

DNA is the genetic material in your cells and makes all of us unique. It can be obtained by a gentle swab of the inner cheek. Useful candidates for this project can come from a cohort of pre-war immigrants, survivors, and second and third generations of survivors' families. There is a nominal cost related to the testing.

The information will not be shared with any other non-forensic agency. The anonymity of those in the database will be assured by coding of names.

The DNA Shoah project is seeking Holocaust survivors and possible relatives to submit DNA samples for testing. It also is seeking benefactors to help pay for the project.

For more information, visit http://www.dnashoah.info.

My thanks to Mary Grindol for telling me about this project.

Dick Eastman, August 02, 2006

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> 2007 NGS Research Trip to Salt Lake City

The National Genealogical Society is pleased to announce a research trip to the Family History Library on 14-21 January 2007. This is the eighth annual trip sponsored by NGS and, as in previous years, the trip will be co-led by Dereka Smith, MLS, and Shirley Langdon Wilcox, CG, FNGS.

Dereka is the former librarian of the National Genealogical Society, where she worked from 1994-2004. She obtained her Masters of Library Science degree from Catholic University. Shirley served two terms as NGS president and has been a Certified Genealogist since 1973. She was president of the Association of Professional Genealogists from 1991-93 and currently serves on the Board for Certification of Genealogists, the Association of Professional Genealogists, and the Virginia Genealogical Society.

The trip package price includes seven nights at the Salt Lake City Plaza Hotel, located next door to the Library. The Plaza is ideally located with access to the library, shopping malls, and restaurants. Also included are an informal reception on Sunday evening, pizza on Wednesday, and a dinner on the last night. Other meals are at your own expense. Airfare and personal expenses are not included.

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City is the world’s largest genealogical facility. You will have access to more than two million rolls of microfilm, hundreds of thousands of microfiche, a huge collection of published genealogical works, and a wide range of modern electronic resources. The trip leaders, both very experienced with the Library, will be available throughout your stay to help you make best use of your research time. Registrants will receive a detailed letter in October and orientation will be provided upon arrival in Salt Lake City.

The cost for the trip for NGS members will be $595 for a shared room and $915 for participants wanting a single room. Costs are slightly more for non-members. For registration and more information, visit http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/edutripsaltlake.cfm. Questions can be sent to lund@ngsgenealogy.org.

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Here's info about a new magazine in PDF format known as Digital Genealogist. Many of you will remember that Liz Kerstens spoke to us at NEOCAG regarding CLOOZ and Geneweaver. Brent Morgan

> Digital Genealogist

Many of you know that I have been the editor of Ancestry's Genealogical Computing for the past nearly seven years. Ancestry has chosen to discontinue the magazine, effective with the July/August/September 2006 issue that is currently in the mail. I still believe there's a need for a magazine devoted to genealogy and technology. To that end, I am starting my own magazine later this year. It will be called Digital Genealogist and will be delivered to subscribers as a PDF. It will be similar in format and content to Genealogical Computing. In fact, a lot of the authors and columnists will continue to write for me in the new publication, including Drew Smith, popular Cybrarian columnist. The first issue of Digital Genealogist will be send out via PDF attachment to subscribers in November 2006.

If you are interested in subscribing, the annual rate is $20. You can subscribe at www.digitalgenealogist.com. Payments are being taken through PayPal by clicking on the PayPal button on the Digital Genealogist website. Subscriptions will begin with the first issue.

One of the advantages to subscribers of a PDF is that the URLs in both > articles and ads will be live links, allowing you to immediately explore ideas suggested by authors and websites of advertisers. I am hoping that the format will be agreeable to subscribers.

Liz Kelley Kerstens, CG, CGL Editor, Digital Genealogist, July 28, 2006

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> Google News Adds Newspaper Archives

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google News is getting a sense of the past to balance out its relentless focus on the present.

Google Inc. has added the ability to search through more than 200 years of historical newspaper archives alongside the latest contemporary information now available on Google News, the market-leading Web search firm said on Tuesday.

"The goal of the service is to allow users to explore history as it unfolded," said Anurag Acharya, a top Google engineer who helped develop the news archive search. “Users can see how viewpoints changed over time for events, for ideas and for people," said Acharya, who also built the Google Scholar service for academic researchers and once was a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Archive Search instantly generates a timeline of stories on a particular subject over the years, allowing Web surfers to target particular dates, or to observe how coverage of an issue has evolved over time. As examples, he cited the 1969 Apollo moon landing or events with long histories such as the Palestinian conflict.

Archival search adds historical and chronological dimensions to Google News, which since it first was launched in 2002, has allowed people to use keywords to search for the latest news from recent weeks in thousands of publications.

Starting immediately, users of Google News will find a News Archive Search link as an alternative to searching the wider Web or zeroing in on breaking news. The service is offered in U.S. English only, initially. News articles in a number of other languages can also be uncovered, including Spanish.

Users who are purely interested in historical comparisons can go straight into the archival search feature at http://news.google.com/archivesearch/. When Google users search for certain terms on general Google search, historical links may also appear as part of Google's standard search results. Archival news links are clustered around themes and according to date in chronological order as far back as digital news sources exist -- decades or even several centuries. Users may choose to search the archives of specific publications.

For now, it has no plans to embed advertising links alongside archive search results, although sites with historical news may choose to feature advertising or charge subscription fees for access to the relevant items. By simplifying how Web users locate historical news sources, the news archive search feature could also serve to spur media companies to provide richer access to archives, few of which have been digitized or made widely available to date.

Sources range from free news articles on ad-supported sites such as Time Warner Inc.'s Time.com and The Guardian or snippets of articles available for a fee or via subscription, from newspapers like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Results are based on relevance, with no favoritism shown to any of Google's partners, officials said. It is also taking a hands-off approach to how it may make money from the feature.

Participating news aggregators include Factiva, AccessMyLibrary.com from Thomson Gale, HighBeam Research and LexisNexis. Factiva is a joint venture of Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and Reuters Group Plc Reuters is not directly offering its news through the archive search of Google News.

"It is another sign of Google learning to work with and enlist the content owners," said Danny Sullivan, an industry analyst with Search Engine Watch. The media industry initially resisted moves by Google to make online news or photos available through their search systems or to tape video broadcasts off the air and scan copyrighted books from some of the world's great libraries.

But over the past year Google has convinced many of the world's biggest media companies that Google's search systems can offer a path to new revenues for content owners.

Eric Auchard

AT&T Yahoo Mail, Sep 6, 2006

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> Linkpendium Adding 100,000 Sources Of Genealogical Information Every Month.

It's been three months since I've posted about Linkpendium, and during that time we've been locating and adding an average of more than 100,000 sources of genealogical information every month. Linkpendium now has links to 5,032,855 sources of genealogical information. It is numerically by far the largest directory of genealogical resources on the Internet. In fact, Linkpendium is one of the largest human-edited directories of *any* kind on the Web.

We're kinda jazzed about breaking 5,000,000 links, though obviously there are a lot more resources for us to find and categorize.

The links are categorized either by:

o Surnames WORLD-WIDE (4,492,238 links).

o American localities, generally county-level (540,617 links).

We do not yet provide world-wide locality coverage, though we plan to phase in world-wide locality coverage as resources allow. The URL is: http://www.linkpendium.com/

Webmasters are welcome to link to either our homepage or deeply into the pages that might be relevant to visitors to your sites. Web- masters of locality sites, like USGW and ALHN county coordinators, and Webmasters of one-name-study sites are welcome to "steal our links" for use on their own sites. All we ask is that you include a link to us somewhere on your site. See our "Acceptable Use Policy" for details.

We are actively searching the Internet for genealogy sites which should be added to the directory. If you are a Webmaster, List Administrator, or Board Administrator for a genealogical resource, or if you are a researcher who knows a particularly useful Internet data source, *PLEASE* check the appropriate Linkpendium category and use the Add-A-Link tool if we haven't included your resource yet. We don't want to miss your resource!

And everyone, if you like what we're doing, please tell other folks about us on the lists and message boards.

Thanks all, and enjoy! -B Aug 7 2006

Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L

P.O. Box 6831, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6831

Email: "Dr. Brian Leverich" <lever...@linkpendium.com>

Groups: alt.genealogy, alt.genealogy.methods, soc.genealogy.computing, soc.genealogy.methods

COMMENTS FROM DICK EASTMAN

One of the great unsung genealogy resources on the Web is Linkpendium. It is a compendium of links to U.S. genealogy-related information on the World Wide Web. Its home page proclaims that it presently contains links to 4,987,236 genealogy sites.

Linkpendium was developed by Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich, the same two people who created RootsWeb some years ago. RootsWeb was eventually acquired by MyFamily.com, the same company that operates Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com. Obviously, Karen and Brian have not been sitting on their hands since their RootsWeb days. They seem to be indexing all sorts of genealogy information on the Internet. Linkpendium has been online for close to three years now but doesn't seem to receive much publicity.

At first glance, Linkpendium would appear to be a competitor of Cyndi's List (which I love and use often). However, once you enter Linkpendium, you quickly realize that it is a very different kind of service. Cyndi's List contains 150 different categories, including Beginners, Biographies, Births & Baptisms, Calendars, CD-ROM disks, Clothing & Costumes, Family Bibles, Famous People and many, many more categories. On the other hand, Linkpendium focuses on U.S. state, county, and local resources as well as surnames. Linkpendium doesn't have links to genealogy software or to calendars. As a comparison, I would suggest that Cyndi's List contains a broad range of categories whereas Linkpendium is much more focused. In addition, Linkpendium seems to go much deeper into those areas of its interests.

The Linkpendium links to family surnames are extensive. All the links point to other web sites, and the quality of those other web sites obviously varies. I found that quite a few of the links that I tried led to message boards that seem to be inactive. A few led to very active messages boards on RootsWeb, GenCircles, and Genealogy.com.

Linkpendium's real strength is its pointers to resources at the county level of all U.S. states. I suspect that is where the majority of links are to be found. Indeed, I looked at Penobscot County, Maine, as it is one county where I have significant expertise. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of links there, including many that I had never seen before. The list included links to many cemetery transcriptions as well as to city directories, published town histories, buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places, land records, libraries, museums, mailing lists, maps, online obituaries, genealogy and historical societies, and quite a bit more. In my casual perusal of several other counties in other states, I saw similar lists.

Linkpendium also has excellent lists at the state level in addition to those listed under each county. However, the site seems to focus heavily on county resources. I found no information for locations outside the U.S.

In short, if you are looking for U.S. genealogy or history web sites and resources, Linkpendium should be on your checklist of places to look. You will find many links there. In fact, you will find more than two million of them.

To see for yourself, go to http://www.linkpendium.com

Dick Eastman July 19, 2006

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