November 17, 2004

October 28, 2003

  • Thought

    New York Times: Google Studies Creation of Book Database:

    “Google.com has begun talks with book publishers to compile a searchable database of the contents of thousands of volumes, a publishing executive briefed on the project said yesterday.”

    Well that didn’t take long. Amazon just announce their service last week and Google is hot on the trail. My guess is Google will have a tougher time with publishers than Amazon.com because they don’t have as clear a connection to hard-copy book sales. Amazon can of course argue that the “search in the book” feature increases sales. How does Google make the argument?

    BTW, if you haven’t read Wired’s article on Amazon yet, you should. Great reading.

September 19, 2003