Email: Google on CNN [MG]

CNN's conclusion was (in one sentence) that Google "won't replace the library" (the implication is "for now") "but they're getting closer."

I have a problem with [cable] TV news' depth compared to newspapers, and they certainly rarely "get it" when it comes to technology. They do have an international audience though. (I could write in computer magazines for decades -- and I have -- yet people remain ignorant of vital tech subjects until they see it on CNN. I still have to tell friends and clients over and over that if they are on the Internet without a firewall or antivirus software, they are all but guaranteed to have been infected within the first ten minutes they went online.)

You are so right! Yet beyond the dangers of dropping your handheld PC in the bathtub or on the sidewalk, the biggest detriments to onscreen reading are expense, resolution and backlighting. Until any technology (while offering certain advantages as it approaches a tipping point) is as easy and cheap as the natural way to do it, the tech pushers are going to keep blowing hot air -- and the cable TV blather is going to sensationalize it without putting it into a meaningful context for the consumer.