"Google has done it, so why can't we?" is probably what MAN managers had in mind when they embarked on a tedious ride of scanning and indexing books, while trying to dodge law suits for copyright issues.
The Google Print service went active last December and allows searching for a book in the database, the result displayed being the first three pages of that specific book, but also information about that particular edition,
details on the editor, references, copyright, index, etc.
Microsoft has announced recently that it would join a less controversial library book digitization project, sponsored by Yahoo and Internet Archive. The end results will be available only after MSN will scan and index great amounts of printed material.
Microsoft said it estimates to get through with the digitization of 150,000 books in the first year, which will cost about $5 million. The company has yet to decide on what business models to capitalize from, such as pay per page, monthly subscriptions, selling e-books and advertisements.
Book Search by MSN will be not only about finding whatever book one needs, but also it will create a readers community, with discussion groups based on personal annotations.
Microsoft plans to start this service only with non-copyrighted materials, but it is also discussing with both libraries and publishers to have copyrighted books indexed and available for search sometime next year. That's when legal issues might surface and rewrite Google's Print story all over again.
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