Authors and publishers discuss Google’s library project – Boston.com

This is a very interesting topic – Google wants to start indexing books on their venerable search engine, and a lot of people are upset. Google is being sued because authors and publishers believe that the indexing is actually just scanning copyrighted work. Google thinks that the project will allow people to find books that they would normally not be able to find.

Three university libraries, including Havard’s, will be indexed and put on-line for people to search in a ‘electronic card catalog’ according to Google.

I think its a great idea – have you been to the library lately? Its so hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. If more content from books were indexed, it would be easier to find exactly what you want, from a real source, not just a web page. Think of how much faster you’d be able to do research, or find a passage from a novel or a book of poems. I’m all for it, I wonder what the courts will decide.

Google’s book search is here for you to try out. A story about Microsoft’s book search is here – they claim they will be indexing only books where they have permission from the publisher. And here’s another article from boingboing