Google has spun a long list of accomplishments over the last several months: Google Desktop Search, successful IPO in August, growing advertising revenue and usage with AdWords and AdSense, etc.
Now Google is teaming up with some big name libraries to actually index the content of thousands of books and make the results available to internet searchers. This is the first step in an ambitious effort to make virtually all of the printed information in the world available to anyone anywhere in the world with a web browser and an Internet connection.
Some in the library industry are comparing the digitization and indexing of this information to the invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg back in the 1400’s. Gutenberg made information more freely available with the use of movable type. Google could offer a similar step forward by eliminating the need for a physical transport layer entirely – a fully virtual library.
The first issue which comes to mind is copyright protection. Some of the libraries involved in this project are only allowing public domain books to be scanned. Others will work with the book publishers to get permission to include their books.
It’s a huge project that could take up to ten years to complete at a cost estimated at 150-250 million dollars. Naturally, Google intends to earn advertising revenue each time someone searches using keywords on those library pages. Further, future authors can look forward to getting a cut of the Google ad revenue for allowing their books to be added to Google’s index even as the books are launched (or before). |
