A roundup of today's tech news in brief

Google to stream major labels’ music

Google is partnering with major music labels to launch a new feature to make it easier to discover, sample and buy songs on the search engine, according to two people familiar with the plan.

The music industry, which is struggling with plunging sales and fewer media outlets to break new acts, hopes that streaming songs or clips on the world’s most popular search engine will help to stem the tide.

Start-ups iLike and LaLa will facilitate the new feature, which will enable songs to be streamed on the Google page that will also include a “buy” button. This will help to reduce the steps fans need to take to buy their favourite songs or albums. – (Reuters)

Media player sales surge at Komplett

Online retailer Komplett is seeing a surge in sales of media players and adapters like the Western Digital HD TV Media Player, in the run-up to Christmas. Media players allow content stored on hard drives to be played back on televisions.

Komplett believes strong sales of storage and media players are at the expense of Blu-Ray, the next generation of DVD technology. “We see media players eating significantly into [Blu-Ray’s] growth, particularly amongst the tech-savvy consumer who is aware of the possibilities to obtain high-definition content via their computers,” said Aaron McKenna of Komplett Ireland.

Wikipedia and HP partner on magazine publishing project

The founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia has entered into a partnership with computer firm Hewlett-Packard that will allow users create and print magazines. Jimmy Wales, founder of the user-edited Wikipedia, said users will be able to publish personalised magazines using content from Wiki sites.

With traditional magazine readership in decline, the initiative is aimed at personalised online information.

“We are doing all kinds of things like that to think about ways to sustain this idea of participatory culture,” he said. Using HP’s MagCloud, users will be able to print on-demand magazines from more than 50,000 communities.

Tourists opt for eco-hotels

Over half of tourists (52 per cent) in a new Tourism Ireland survey would prefer to stay in a environmentally friendly hotel, but more importantly, 35 per cent said they would pay more for the privilege.

Speaking at the third National Hospitality Environmental conference, Paddy Matthews of Fáilte Ireland announced the launch of a “green filter” on the agency’s website, allowing visitors to Ireland choose properties that have an environmental certification.