Google Goes Gutenberg
Yes, I know this might be so last week, but I don’t care. Stumbled over the new Google Print initiative, which sounds very similar to what Amazon has been up to - bringing the whole contents of books themselves into the search index so that when you search for particular subjects, relevant books will show up in your search as well as webpages.
You can read the whole book online, only the couple of pages around your query - like flicking in a bookshop. It’s a fantastic initiative to get lost literature back under the noses of those who fail to look beyond a web browser for information. That’s literally millions of books being introduced into the network. Small publishers should be piling their entire back catalogue into boxes to ship off to Google NOW so they can start getting a ton of free publicity. Google have already publicly invited publishers to send books for free inclusion.
Google’s explanation of their service is here and Amazon’s similar service was explained in a Wired article that was called something like The Great Library Of Amazonia. No connection at the moment so no link.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Publishers - guaranteed coverage for your books
- Free New Books
- More Free New Books
- Free New Books
- Free New Books
