04/01/07
Google Book Search: Medialoper
An interesting post from Medialoper today on ‘Whatever happened to Google Book Search‘. One choice quote is, ‘if a publishing house isn’t feverishly digitizing backlist while I write this, they do not deserve a place on the bookshelf’.
Maybe it’s just that books aren’t as glamorous as movies, I don’t know. But while the major studios and music labels try — and I use the word very deliberately — to wrap their minds around the concept of digitizing and distributing content, Google (and, to be fair, Microsoft and Amazon) has pushed forward with its plan. As I type, I can access digitized books and make decisions about their usefulness in my current research. As more product gets added to the search engine, I find myself using this feature of Google more and more. I have actually made one purchase based on this feature. Not a bad return on investment, considering I never would have found this book on Amazon. I tried; Amazon’s search functionality denied me, time and again. Google, however, was more than happy to offer the book up right away.
but then goes on to talk about how the big publishing houses’ endeavours are not enough.
As publishers and author fight Google, they hurt themselves. I get the copyright argument. It’s valid, except when protecting copyright leads to locking up content and throwing away the key. What, pray tell, is actually being protected? I can’t read it, access it, buy it, read it. But the copyright is totally safe. Not a single violation to be had. Sure, not a single sale or bite of interest either, but as long as the copyright is inviolate, well, the world is safe from evil.
Read the post in full here. And subscribe to Medialoper.
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