Talk:ebook
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Link format
It is consistent WP link style that if we make a link to the WP page for a particular product, we do not also put in the external link to the home page of the product, and the links just put in are being removed. Se WP:EL, and do not revert.
That's not true
Article sais "Printed books use three times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce when compared to e-books." and provides a source; that source do not suport it, and in fact it's an opinion blog about iPad, not an eBook.
For example, this paper of 2012 does a comparation asuming that user reads 60 books per year, and it's quite even; if user doesn't read many books electronic devices are more polluting. Greenpeace talks about thousands of books in the lifespan of the device to be better than paper books, since nowdays no paper comes from natural trees and the issue it's water consuption etc. Books transportation consumes fuel; eBooks downloading and storage consume huge amounts of electricity in Internet's data centers (a central point in polluting issue nowdays).
I mean, it is not trivial, as article sais. And of course iPads can't be compared... --85.48.235.204 (talk) 11:07, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
- Good catch. I've removed it. ElectricAutumn talk 06:20, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
Requested move 16 April 2021
- The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
The result of the move request was: Moved. Rough consensus to move per WP:COMMONNAME. (non-admin closure) Vpab15 (talk) 20:28, 5 May 2021 (UTC)
E-book → Ebook – According to Google Trends, the terminology "ebook" has always been more popular than e-book by roughly 10 times. Similar words, like email, are spelled without the hyphen. Bill Vaz (talk) 01:05, 16 April 2021 (UTC) —Relisting. Vpab15 (talk) 21:14, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
- Oppose: the sources for this article seem to alternate between "ebook" and "e-book" pretty regularly (including recent sources:
"BBC – WebWise – What is an e-book?". www.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017
andIn Europe, Slower Growth for e-Books Archived October 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. New York Times (November 12, 2014). Retrieved December 5, 2014
). While I don't disagree that this could potentially be a reasonable move, I would like to see more discussion on the issue prior to a WP:BOLD title change. jp×g 01:41, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- This is a contested technical request (permalink). (t · c) buidhe 04:24, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- Oppose disregarding caps, there's almost twice as many hits per Google Scholar results[1][2] But according to NGRAMS, the most common spelling is actually "eBook",[3] Considering technical restrictions, it isn't possible to have a lowercase first letter so I support moving to EBook and displaying the title as eBook using DISPLAYTITLE. (t · c) buidhe 04:26, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- Oppose. Dictionaries seem to favor the hyphenated form.[4][5][6] Rreagan007 (talk) 14:46, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- Favor I took the time to read the Wikipedia:Article titles page, which offers guidance how to proceed in these situations:
- Titles should be "short" and by deleting the hyphen we'd make it short; "natural, distinguishable and recognizable" how best to make recognizable than use the terminology the vast majority (over 90%) people use when searching on Google?; "and resembles titles for similar articles" the article email is not e-mail and both email and ebooks resemble an electronic version of something.
- According to the same Wikipedia:Article titles page, "Article titles are based on how reliable English-language sources refer to the article's subject." Well, Cambridge dictionary refers to it as ebook, Macmillan Dictionary also refers to it as ebook, the online website of Barnes & Noble refers to it as eBook, and the online store of Kobo refers to it as eBooks and Google, on its Google Play store, refers to it as ebooks as well as on the help articles of Google Books, and Apple on its IBooks Author help articles writes ebooks
- According to the same Wikipedia:Article titles page, "The title is no longer than necessary to identify the article's subject and distinguish it from other subjects." By using "ebook" instead of "e-book", it would be shorter and correctly so as no one would confuse it with something else.
- According to the same Wikipedia:Article titles page, "The title is consistent with the pattern of similar articles' titles." As aforementioned, as we there is article called "email" for electronic mail, we ought not to have "ebook" for electronic book.
- According to Google Scholar, there are 1,890,000 mentions of ebook and another 685,000 mentions for ebooks, bringing the total for ebook in singular and plural form to 2,575,000 mentions. On the other hand, there are only 1,030,000 mentions for e-book and 245,000 for e-books, brining the total of e-book in singular and plural form to 1,275,000. Therefore, it can be calculated that the plural and singular form of "ebook" is nearly twice as often referred to in scientific papers than "e-book".
- Using Google's Ngram Viewer mentioned by the contributor Buidhe, if you remove the smoothing of the graph, which can be misleading, you'll notice that "ebook" is more popular than "eBook" or "e-book" or even "e-Book" --Bill Vaz (talk) 23:42, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- Favor With time passing by, the word e-mail lost the hyphen becomem email, as we know now - and as mentioned: "the article email is not e-mail and both email and ebooks resemble an electronic version of something."The argument concerning the presence in dictionaries of the word "e-books" was also called into question by the mention of large and recognized dictionaries.--HugoFilipeNunes (talk) 23:36, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- Support - Ngram and other searches don't support e-book as the most frequent usage. WP:MOS doesn't look kindly on eBook styling. Ebook it is. ~Kvng (talk) 13:49, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
Do all apps really track users?
Under "Digital Rights Management" the article states: 'All of the e-readers and reading apps are capable of tracking e-book reading data'.
As far as I know this is true of all dedicated hardware ebook readers, but I don't think it's true of all apps, even assuming that "apps" is restricted to cellphones and tablets. There's KOReader, FBReader, and others available for Android which are Free Software in the full sense of the term (you can get, and modify, the source code). I'm too lazy to check whether the versions as commonly distributed track reading data, but as far as I know, they do not, and the statement in the article is false and should be changed. Does anyone disagree? Longitude2 (talk) 08:47, 15 May 2022 (UTC)
- I agree that it's an overstatement. A quick look at KOReader's github page and user manual reveal no mention of tracking (though that is, of course, no guarantee that the capability isn't present). ElectricAutumn talk 06:23, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
Capitalization
@Aoidh: is the word "ebook" normally capitalized at the start of a sentence, such as "[E/e]book readers include the Kindle, Nook, and many other devices"? 206.204.236.102 (talk) 23:23, 14 October 2023 (UTC)
- Especially in the earlier days of the eBook it was handled inconsistently between reliable sources, but the convention now is generally to have it in lowercase even at the beginning of sentences, barring the usual things like internal style guidelines to the contrary. Since Nook was mentioned, as an example Barnes & Noble, appear to always have it lowercased, even when starting sentences and section headings. - Aoidh (talk) 00:59, 15 October 2023 (UTC)
Advantages, etc.
The Advantages section says: "using an online dictionary". Some e-readers have a built-in dictionary so that no internet access is needed. If you are using e-reader software on a laptop computer, then you probably have dictionary software available, sometimes with hotlinking.
Another big advantage is that content can be searched for. An example is that someone asked me if "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" by Howard Pyle had much about Maid Marian. Using an EPUB version, I was able to determine that she is only mentioned twice, with very little detail. That would have taken hours with a paper book, with no guarantee of accuracy.
The writer(s) of these sections assumes that every user is continually connected to the internet and can be tracked. Some internet access might be needed to acquire some eBooks, but that could be done at the library so that no one would know you even existed.
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