Google has been digitizing the text of books and incorporating this data in this Google website: Google Books
A bunch of publishing ninnies have been up in arms, lawyering up and trying to get Google to stop this. (it falls under the auspices of "fair use" so is totally legal)
The smarter publishers have noticed a nice effect -- an increase in sales.
From Slashdot:
Publishers Thank Google for Book Sales
"A few book publishers are actually thanking Google for an apparent rise in sales due to Google's scan plan. Google is busy defending itself against authors and publishers that have brought lawsuits for ignoring copyrights. The director of the Oxford University Press said, 'Google Book Search has helped us turn searchers into consumers.' It seems to work in favor of the smaller publishers: 'Walter de Gruyter/Mouton-De Gruyter, a German publisher, said its encyclopedia of fairy tales has been viewed 471 times since appearing in the program, with 44 percent of them clicking on the 'buy this book' Google link.' Do you think that Google's 'sneak peak' search access increases sales or violates copyrights on intellectual property?" Heh... Only a small amount of the text is indexed and it would stand to reason that if someone is searching for a particular set of words, they would be inclined to purchase a book that matched their desire. We are seeing the same thing with the major media and the minor media. The majors are still thinking that they dominate the market while the minors are nimble and provide the content that people want. Dinosaurs anyone? Jen and I eat what the dinosaurs eventually evolved into. Tastes like chicken.
"A few book publishers are actually thanking Google for an apparent rise in sales due to Google's scan plan. Google is busy defending itself against authors and publishers that have brought lawsuits for ignoring copyrights. The director of the Oxford University Press said, 'Google Book Search has helped us turn searchers into consumers.' It seems to work in favor of the smaller publishers: 'Walter de Gruyter/Mouton-De Gruyter, a German publisher, said its encyclopedia of fairy tales has been viewed 471 times since appearing in the program, with 44 percent of them clicking on the 'buy this book' Google link.' Do you think that Google's 'sneak peak' search access increases sales or violates copyrights on intellectual property?" Heh... Only a small amount of the text is indexed and it would stand to reason that if someone is searching for a particular set of words, they would be inclined to purchase a book that matched their desire. We are seeing the same thing with the major media and the minor media. The majors are still thinking that they dominate the market while the minors are nimble and provide the content that people want. Dinosaurs anyone? Jen and I eat what the dinosaurs eventually evolved into. Tastes like chicken.
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