We closed out the InfoToday Blog midday (London time) on Friday. Somehow there were lots of other things I wanted to say that I lacked the time for during the Online Information show. Not to mention the lack of a decent connection other than in my hotel room. And if I’m in my room blogging, I’m missing the conference.

At least one person (thanks, Anne) took me to task for my post about Factiva. I guess I wasn’t clear enough. The Wall Street Journal Europe subscription includes a subscription to WSJ.com . The Wall Street Journal here in the U.S. does not. My point was that, even if you weren’t in Europe, you could access stories from the paper if you were a Factiva subscriber.

Other impressions: On the exhibit floor, there was very little French presence. I can recall when numerous French information companies banded together and there was an entire French section of the hall. An interview with Dominique Vallee, the president of GFII, by Francois Libmann, that appeared in the October 2005 issue of BASES (full text is not online, but the publisher can be found here ) explains that GFII this year decided not to organize the French Pavilion but rather to concentrate its efforts on its own conference, the i-expo.

The EUSIDIC organization was back. Earlier this year, there was concern about the future of this association for European information professionals and information companies. It lost its URL, which is now owned by a bank, and postponed its Fall conference. The conference is now scheduled for 9-11 April 2006 in Innsbruck. I wish they’d picked different dates, since those conflict with Buying & Selling eContent in Arizona to which I’m already committed to going. I’m afraid EUSIDIC still has some problems, however. At Online Information, all its information about how to become a member said that prospective members should contact CAOS, the Dutch firm that had acted as Secretariat to EUSIDIC. But CAOS (what an unfortunate acronym!) says they no longer represent EUSIDIC. The new Web site’s link to “member registration” takes you to a dead CAOS page. For a struggling organization, to turn away prospective members like that is not a good sign.

Speaking of associations, I had the impression at this year’s SLA breakfast that it was populated mainly by British members, plus some Americans. I think in prior years, there were more members from outside the UK.

It was good to see companies like Google exhibiting this year. I’d love to see more Web companies having exhibit stands next year.