Search engine Google plans to offer consumers the chance to download and print classic novels free of charge. The firm’s book search tool will let people print classics such as Dante’s Inferno or Aesop’s Fables, as well as other books no longer under copyright. Until now, the service has only let people read such books on-screen.
Google’s book search service stems from a wider project to put books online in a searchable format, which it is undertaking with major universities. Working with Google on the Books Library project are Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of California, as well as the New York Public Library. Volunteers working for a project known as Gutenberg have for some years copied out-of-copyright books as text files, which can then be used for printing, reading or piping into a programme for editing.
In contrast, Google is offering the books in a “print-ready” format, as have several other - albeit much smaller and less well-known - firms. Online shopping site Amazon has offered limited online access to the contents of its huge bookstore.
Google’s book searching device does not access books still under copyright, for which only bibliographies are available along with limited extracts. The news comes as the search engine is expanding its empire to offer a wider spectrum of services. Earlier this week, Google announced plans to target the software market for companies. The firm said it would offer companies the chance to run their email, calendar and other services on their own domains, to expand on the service it offers to individuals. This service puts Google, whose focus has been searching and advertising, in direct competition with software giant Microsoft.
created by Victor Kwong
Update
This service is now available. Check out Google Apps For Your Domain. As long as you have a domain name registered, Google can provide hosted email accounts (gmail interface but using your domain name), a chat service (Google Talk - also allows computer to computer VOIP and works extremely well), a calendar service that also can function as a shared calendar, and a wysiwyg interface for updating your website. The service allows up to 25 email addresses for free (at least for my account) and seems available to anyone who wishes to sign up
edited by Graeme Grovum
Update - Google’s custom search engine
A new tool introduced by Google is its Custom Search Engine (CSE)which allows web publishers to create custom searches on their sites or blogs.
This is one way to make searches better by letting people decide what should be searched. It allows users to select which websites, pages or topics they wish to include in their own tailored web search index. You can restrict search results to selected pages and sites, or give your selected sites higher priority and ranking than the rest of the Google index. The customized search relies on the same underlying database of websites as the normal Google search, but allows companies or individual users to set up customised online searches by tailoring the search to specified topics and websites to reflect the users’ interests, point of view or area of expertise. Eg: an online women’s magazine may wish to tailor their search to gossip and celebrity news.
See my blog entry on Google CSE here.
Find more information at Google CSE and its FAQ.
See also Graeme’s wiki entry on using Google CSE to create your own legal research search engine.
edited by Vanessa Lin