As Danny Sullivan writes on Search Engine Land, so much for an alternative to Google's products in the academic and scholarly arenas. Very sad. Of course, one has to wonder how many searchers knew about and used Microsoft's offerings in this area. Our guess, not that many. Again, a sad moment. Building it doesn't mean they will come and use it. Databases are not a field of dreams.
Of course, many other full text online book search guides and databases exist. Just because Microsoft is leaving doesn't mean that there aren't other places to turn.
In terms of "scholarly articles" as found in Live Academic Search or Google Scholar, many libraries in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and elsewhere provide FREE full text access to databases containing this type of material. Access is available remotely, in other words, access from any web computer. No need to visit the library. All you need is a library card (also free) from that specific library. Here's an example of the many FREE databases (again, all you need is a library card) from the:
and thousands more. Contact your local library and see what you have access to. Of course, those with access to an academic library (let's say, University of California-Irvine) have the ability to use (remotely, 24x7x365) even more databases.
Finally, more and more public and academic libraries now offer free downloadable access to audiobooks and movies. Again, all you need is a library card.
Check out (no pun intended) and gain access to thousands (if not more) articles, books, recordings, and more from the comfort and privacy of your home or any web computer.
See Also: Libdex
Take a look at what you can access with your library card. Here's a great database to find contact info and web pages for thousands of libraries around the world.
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
