Posted on 01/04/2009 10:58:53 PM PST by PizzaDriver
Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books Ever since Google began scanning printed books four years ago, scholars and others with specialized interests have been able to tap a trove of information that had been locked away on the dusty shelves of libraries and in antiquarian bookstores.
According to Dan Clancy, the engineering director for Google book search, every month users view at least 10 pages of more than half of the one million out-of-copyright books that Google has scanned into its servers. For readers who might want to buy digital access to an individual scanned book, Mr. Clancy said, Google was likely to sell at least half of the books for $5.99 or less. Students and faculty at universities who subscribe to the database will be able to get the full contents of all the books free.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Google used it's position, as a primary gateway to information, in a partisan and unethical manner. It's full support of 0bama's candidacy is but one example.
Google will delete and or rewrite any information once they control it.
Google has become truly scary.
Google wasn’t there a couple of years ago.
No one is stopping you from building a rival to Google.
OK, how much will you contribute to an alternative?
Serious question, not flippant.
I didn’t contribute anything to Google; neither will I to any apparent rival. If the new company can’t find a way to hold its own against Google, they don’t have a right to exist. That’s the Free Market.
Works like a charm. Links to all digital libraries, ten different search engines to find books.
A little-known secret is that the "Audiobooks" search tab also finds MP3s.
Here is the Audiobook Search I mentioned earlier. (It finds MP3 & music files too, although they don't advertise that fact.)
A number of people are trying... there are a lot of other search engines out there, most of them highly specialized.
The Search Engine List
Cuil (Pron: "cool") is the newest trying to take on Google. Supposedly searches more pages and indexes more documents than Google. Ex-Google people have done this startup.
I’ve followed Cuil for some while now, but the pace at which Google is innovating, it is going to be a gargantuan task for them. Google simply is much easier to use than most other search engines.
I find the “search within a website” function on the Google toolbar, especially useful.
some = a
I find the search within a website function on the Google toolbar, especially useful.
I don't like the way that Google has been censoring certain results and images that it deems are not flattering to Obama.
For example, if you use Google Image search, you cannot find this image of Obama where he looks like a ridiculous pimp smoking a joint:
It cannot be found at all using Google Image Search.
On the other hand, you can find it on the first try using All The Web's Image Search.
source: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1866765_1815160,00.html
(sorry, but i found it using google)
OTOH, I like the idea that older books will still be around. Particularly those which might only have a single copy in the entire Brooklyn Public Library.
Thanks!
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