Margins Check: ABC and Facebook, Google computers, digital books and more

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
—ABC News announced a partnership with Facebook to provide political and debate information for the 2008 election. The news underscores a growing link between old and new media, as highlighted by the CNN-YouTube presidential debate and MTV’s “presidential dialogue series” with MySpace. It’s unclear whether such partnerships will eventually include a mobile component, but those in the mobile content industry may do well to position themselves for that possible opportunity.
–According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is prepping a service that would allow computer users to store the contents of their computer’s hard drive on the Internet, thereby allowing them to access their digital information from any computer via the Internet. According to the report, mobile access will be included in the offering. The Google service, if it is released, could be the beginning of a nomadic computing paradigm in which wireless would play a major role.
–Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said they have uploaded to the Internet the contents of 1.5 million books in an effort to digitize the published works of humankind and make them freely available online. The project yet again highlights the digitalization of large chunks of society, a trend that bodes well for those selling mobile access to digital information.
–Activision and Vivendi announced a mega-merger that would create the world’s largest video-gaming company. The deal creates an additional layer of complexity for those companies looking to reinvigorate the flagging mobile game market.