Comments on: Horseless Carriage Department: A p-book with links built in http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/06/29/horseless-carriage-department-a-p-book-with-links-built-in/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:11:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Garson O'Toole http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/06/29/horseless-carriage-department-a-p-book-with-links-built-in/#comment-445707 Garson O'Toole Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6773#comment-445707 There is a strong impetus to attempt to interconnect paper books, magazines and newspapers with the web. One previous idea involved a scanner called <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat" rel="nofollow">CueCat</A> that was mass-mailed for free to Wired magazine subscribers and several other groups. According to Wikipedia:<blockquote>The CueCat enabled users to link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode appearing in an article, catalog or on some other printed matter. In this way a user could be directed to a web page containing related information without having to enter a URL. The system that supported this functionality is no longer in operation.</blockquote>I received a CueCat and thought that the idea was interesting. The scanner codes appeared in advertisements in Wired magazine and apparently in some other major magazines like Parade and Forbes. This scanner-based technological effort to link paper and the web collapsed and the system is now non-functional. But the technique proposed by Manolis Kelaidis above is different and has distinct strengths and weaknesses. Users simply touch a page instead of having to locate a wand and drag it across a page but the book must be specially designed. There is a strong impetus to attempt to interconnect paper books, magazines and newspapers with the web. One previous idea involved a scanner called CueCat that was mass-mailed for free to Wired magazine subscribers and several other groups. According to Wikipedia:
The CueCat enabled users to link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode appearing in an article, catalog or on some other printed matter. In this way a user could be directed to a web page containing related information without having to enter a URL. The system that supported this functionality is no longer in operation.

I received a CueCat and thought that the idea was interesting. The scanner codes appeared in advertisements in Wired magazine and apparently in some other major magazines like Parade and Forbes.

This scanner-based technological effort to link paper and the web collapsed and the system is now non-functional. But the technique proposed by Manolis Kelaidis above is different and has distinct strengths and weaknesses. Users simply touch a page instead of having to locate a wand and drag it across a page but the book must be specially designed.

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