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From Wired: developers are launching a beta version of QTrax, after reaching deals with the major music labels to allow free music downloads.

QTrax is an ad-supported P2P application that works within the Firefox web browser on Windows computers. Internet Explorer and Safari are not supported. Macs will be supported on 18 March, according to this article from New York’s Silicon Allwy Insider.

That article also reveals that Universal was the final of the 4 major labels to sign with QTrax.

The music files use Windows Media DRM, so they probably won’t work on iPods. A QTrax spokesmen claims iPod compatibility is high on the service’s list, and this Associated Press article says that QTrax has developed a workaround for iTunes compatibility. Apple has released patches to break previous iTunes workarounds by other companies.

QTrax has signed over most of the music revenues to the labels, so the service will earn the bulk of its margin by selling highly targeted web advertising. Of course, it is trivial to block ads in Firefox web pages by using an extension like AdBlock Plus. Whether AdBlock will work with the QTrax Songbird engine is another question. OpenDNS should block the ads, as I mentioned on 3 September 2007.

When I checked QTrax.com a few minutes ago, I saw a single image that claimed the service was overwhelmed by demand - check in tomorrow.

Courtesy of the Chronicle of Higher Education, I found links to two articles in the Times of London. In the first article, Professor Tara Brarbazon describes the research policy for her first-year students: no Googling or Wikipedia. Students should consider the authority of the source material, instead of PageRank or convenience. In a response, Times columnist Magnus Linklater portrays Brabazon’s ban as a short-sighted elitist, while praising Wikipedia for its low error rate. Wikipedia has announced that it will conduct a survey of its users and editors, with the assistance of the United Nations University and Maastricht University.

Of course, balance is important, as I mentioned in my 15 January 2008 article about Wikipedia’s seventh anniversary. Wikipedia and Google are convenient starting points for research, but students need to develop their own search skills.

More library databases are available in surprising ways. This Chronicle article from 7 January 2008 discusses how university libraries are posting their own Facebook applications, to provide their students with easier access to reference materials.