feedGoogle's Got a Brand New Bag (or, er, Google Print Indexing Policy) ∴ Google Blog Spin: Making Books Easier to Find
At the Google Blog they're announcing a new policy / feature. Publishers with book still in copyright can opt out of having their books scanned into the gihugic Google Print Library Index of Doom. Honestly, I think publishers who worry about “free content” are motivated primarily by greed. And even if they aren't motivated by greed, they aren't being particularly smart about book indexing to begin with. Amazon has been able to show that books that are indexed in their database simply sell better. And why not? When you're in a bookstore, do you not flip through the pages and read a bit, see if you want to buy it, and then pull the trigger? Of course it would be possible to read the entire text of a fully indexed book online. But most people won't bother. Especially given that most people (and I have no real evidence of this... just my own natural tendencies) would prefer to read an actual book than have to search for text page by page in an online index. Wouldn't you? j Am I all honky-dory the world is flat here or do you think I'm right? When you sit down to read a good book, do you sit down with a book or with your Powerbook? Tell me in the comments, won't you? Read: Google Blog: Making books easier to find.
technorati tags ∴ book/ books/ Google/ GooglePrint/ indes/ reading
