Google Books Now Available in Search Options

Despite some glaring, legal issues surrounding its Google Books project, the company is as determined as ever and keeps on pushing the product with new features and better exposure. The latest move in this direction is the new “books” filter in the Search Options panel Google introduced earlier this year. This allows users to restrict their searches to content available in Books.

“Earlier this year, we introduced the Search Options panel in web search, making it easier to perform queries that limit results to a particular type of content – such as videos, forums, and reviews. We are now making it even easier to find books and magazines by making all of the content on Google Books searchable using the Search Options panel,” Matthew Gray, Grant Dasher, and Garrett Rooney, Google Books software engineers, wrote. “This will provide easier access to books and magazines by letting you slice and dice your results with certain characteristics.”

To test the new feature, one has to do a Google search and then click on the show-options link. This will open the options sidebar, allowing them to filter their search. Along with the Video, Forums and Reviews options, US users will also get the Books filter. Selecting it will allow them to further refine their search by looking only in either books or magazines and by showing only the results for entries that can be viewed in their entirety. The feature is only available in the US for now, but Google says it will be also available in other locations at some point in the future.

Google Books has been one of the company's most controversial projects. It is a massive undertaking, with Google planning to make the majority of the world's books searchable and available online. It has already scanned millions of books, but has encountered some big opposition from some parties. The problems arose when Google started scanning copyrighted, but out-of-print, books without the consent of the owners. This led to a lawsuit in 2005, which was settled last year. The settlement deal itself is now under heavy scrutiny and is likely to be rejected in its current form. Google is said to be already working on a revised agreement that would appease its detractors.