Ah, weekend! Time to put up the Christmas tree, play with the kids or just hang back.
Thumbnailing Copyrighted Images = Fair Use
In the case of Perfect 10 Inc. vs. Google, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that showing thumbnails or copyrighted images can be fair use.
The justices ruled that a larger public interest in searching for information -- or, in this case, images of partially clad women -- amounted to a "transformative use" that trumped Perfect 10's copyright claims. [...]
The court overturned part of a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, which had found that Google's thumbnail-sized images of Perfect 10's nude models constituted infringement. The lower court imposed an injunction barring the use of the images, but the appeals court invalidated that decision.
Also interesting is that the judges wondered if Google and Amazon should be held liable for damages by linking to sites which contain the copyrighted images. The who is responsible when for linking to illegal stuff can have some implications for other scenario's.
Google Reader Shows Combined Shared Link Data
Ad David Carrington reports, Google Reader shared items becomes more social.
If you subscribe to more than one shared items feed and both share the same item, Google Reader will show the item only once but notify you of who shared it.
Amateur Google Image Search gets Man Arrested
John Darwin went missing 5 years ago and has consequently been declared dead.
When he showed up out of the blue a single mother found his story suspicious, did a simple Google image search and uncovered his previous whereabouts.
A single mother put police and journalists to shame in their attempts to unravel the mysterious reappearance of the canoeist John Darwin by using a simple Google search, it emerged yesterday.
The woman found the picture that apparently shows Darwin with his wife, Anne, in Panama City in July last year. [...]
The woman told the Mirror that the Darwins should be nominated for a "world's dumbest" award.
"Not only were they photographed, but the date was actually on the picture. I'm a sceptic. Nobody can simply vanish in this day and age. There has to be something, some sign."
See also: Investigation Step #1: Google Suspect
Google to Treat Subdomains as Folders
Search Engine Roundtable reports on reports that Google will start treating subdomains as folders.
News flash from Las Vegas PubCon. Matt Cutts informed us that Google will very soon begin treating subdomains and subdirectories the same in this fashion: there will be only 2 total urls from a domain in any set of search results, so no more getting 3, 4 or however many spots via subdomains. We didn't get any more information than just that basic heads-up.
Google to Give API Access to Google Trends
eWeek has Marissa Mayer say that down the line Google will open up Google Trends. She also said Google uses Trends to improve search quality.
While I can't [give] particular dates for such a launch, I do believe that we will be making an API available so you can take the Trends product and embed it and use the data.
Have a wonderful weekend!