The Open Library aims to reproduce the experience of reading a book online. Right now there are only a handful of public domain titles available, with many more coming in the next few months. The website is currently in demo mode, with an official launch date in October.
Flipping through the scanned book images is about as close an experience as you're likely to get to reading a dusty old novel without that musty book smell. You can even see library notations and used book prices penciled into the images. It takes a moment for some of the pages to load, and it's arguable whether it's more efficient to read these books in image or text form.
Each book is searchable. Since the books are in the public domain, you can also download each title as a PDF file, or send it to Lulu to order your own personal bound and printed edition. There's also a listen link next to each book. Click it for an audiobook version when available.
The arms race between Microsoft and Google continues. Microsoft has just expanded its book search service to bring it more in line with Google Book Search by adding a limited number of copyrighted works, with permission from major publishers. Up until now, most of the titles indexed had been in the public domain.
The update to MSN Live Search Books comes while Google is still battling several lawsuits against copyright holders for indexing works without permission. That's something for which Microsoft has criticized Google.
MSN Live Search Books shows small selections from copyrighted books and provides links to sites where you can buy the title.
Microsoft associate general counsel Thomas Rubin is talking smack about Google's copyright record. Both companies are scanning books and putting them online, and both companies have web sites that allow users to upload videos, some of which may contain copyrighted material.
But Microsoft is scanning only books where the company has the permission of the publisher, or where the books are no longer covered by copyright law. Rubin says Google, on the other hand, is taking the approach that "everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop."
Google responds that it is making only certain portions of books available online, and claims that the snippets should be covered by fair use, despite a lawsuit filed by book publishers.
If you've ever tried reading a book using Google Book Search, you've probably been frustrated when you read a page only to realize that you can't read the next page. The experience is a lot like being told by a bookstore employee that you've spent enough time reading in the aisle and it's time to move along now. But whether it's legal is another question.
When you go into a bricks and mortar bookstore, you can spend as much time as you like wandering from section to section, picking up books and reading a few pages before deciding what you want to buy. The online bookselling experience has been something very different. You generally have to know what you want or make your decision based on recommendations, descriptions, or judging a book by its cover (or a picture of the cover anyway).
Google has been scanning books and creating an online searchable index, much to the consternation of book publishers. But as Techdirt points out, it's not that these companies don't see value in scanning books and allowing users to read snippets of a publication before deciding to buy it. But rather than work with a company like Google, Harper Collins and Random House are creating their own databases.
The thing is, in that bricks and mortar bookstore, you don't care who publishes a book. They're all on the shelf, arranged by author or topic. I'd rather not buy books at all than have to visit a dozen different websites to find the books I'm looking for. I'd much rather be able to type a search term into Google or some other engine and have books from multiple publishers pop up. Movie studios and music labels get this, and have partnered with companies like Apple, Microsoft, MovieLink, and Amazon to make their content available side by side with their competitor's product. Why can't the gatekeepers of the oldest mass medium in the world figure this out?
Google products are no strangers to mashups from all forms of enthusiastic users and 3rd parties, but you know something cool is brewing when Google mashes up two of their most visionary services: Maps and Book Search. Recently on the Google Book Search blog, David Petrou announced this cool new feature, which they've added to the "About this Book" section of books you find in Google Book Search. Now, not all books will that have text about a location or two will get a map link (at least for now), but the ones that do will also include links to the actual pages of the book where a mapped location is mentioned.
Considering the backlash from publishers Google has received for its book search offering--despite the fact that it's publishers whom it benefits most--one wouldn't think Microsoft would touch book search with a ten-foot pole. But here we are two years after Google launched what was then called Google Print, and Microsoft is set to launch its own book search offering in beta today. Windows Live Books will initially be available as a separate search engine that can be accessed from the Windows Live Search home page, but once the service is out of beta Microsoft says it will integrate its book search database with its main web search index. Unlike Google's book search, Windows Live Books will initially include only public domain works, to be followed by books whose publishers have given Microsoft permission to scan, and all books scanned will have their full text available through the site.
Google has tuned up the way you will search for books from now on with a slick new Ajax interface. Google has developed what it believes to be a better way to browse Google's digitized books on your computer screen. The new interface allows users who are reading books to use the scroll bar or arrow keys to navigate around the book. Users can also now zoom in and out and jump to a full screen view of a book. Navigating through the book is easier with a right side framed table of contents that does not refresh when pages are clicked on, thus creating faster viewing without any reloads and a two page spread view. Google did a great job with the new Book Search site. Fine tuning it like they did will surely attract a lot more users.
There are many attempts each year to remove great books from libraries and schools, and in an effort by Google, Google Book Search will be celebrating Banned Books Week by helping people learn and explore banned books. Google Books is showcasing 42 classics that can be browsed, and purchased.
Showcased titles include:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lolita
The Great Gatsby
1984
The Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
Of Mice and Men
A Clockwork Orange
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
For Whom the Bell Tolls
An American Tragedy
Banned books week is the last week of September each year. It celebrates the freedom to choose, and the freedom to express one's opinion. It's great that a company like Google can help gain awareness for educational causes like this.
The free novel program started life as Google's giant initiative to put books online in a searchable format. Through an outside project known as Gutenberg, volunteers have been scanning public domain books for many years to text files that can in turn be used for printing or reading. Google is acquiring this information, and will allow users to access these books in a print ready format.
UPDATE: To find out-of-copyright books that you can download, select the "Full view" radio button when you search on books.google.com
Reports have surfaced that Google plans to open up a Google AdWords headquarters in Ann Arbor Michigan. Hiring close to 1000 individuals to oversee the main hub for Google's driving revenue source.
Google has already started posting positions for the AdWords headquarters on is HR pages. With the current category being Operations and IT. At the current time of posting, Google had two openings posted. One for Book Search Operations Supervisor and one for Book Search Operations Technician. Not sure how these fit into AdWords, but I guess Google could be running some smaller localized search divisions out of the AdWords HQ.
Google's new facility in Ann Arbor is sure to help out Michigan's slower economy, and give it a nice refreshing boost, and renewed rejuvenation. Google sought out this facility in Michigan due to the talent that was coming out of local Michigan Universities. As an incentive package, the State of Michigan is offering Google $38 million in tax breaks over 20 years for the development of its facility, with Google's expectations that the office be up and running by fall 2006.
Google products are no strangers to 
