In recent months, Google has been working diligently to digitize the print world.  Google has scanned millions of works and successfully digitized them for its new Book Search program, allowing for the contents of the books to be searchable and available on the internet.

Like many of Google’s recent business ventures, the Book Search Program has not gone without some controversy.  There have been arguments over ethical as well as legal issues surrounding the program.
Finally, American publishers and authors have reached an agreement with Google in a settlement over Google’s Book Search program.   The settlement will allow Google to sell electronic versions of copyrighted works that have gone out of print.  This agreement is still subject to court approval.

If the agreement meets the courts approval, it marks the largest publishing deal and creates essentially the largest bookstore in the world.  The online bookshop will operate only in the United States initially according to the arrangement.

In an article in the New York Times, Eric Pfanner commented that the Google Book Search program is the biggest technological leap since Gutenberg’s moveable type.  What is happening to the publishing and printing industry happened first to the music industry.

As technology and the search industry advances, new practices will be implemented continuously.  People fear change, and it sometimes creates temporary setbacks that must be addressed and corrected, yet it is all a part of progress in the big picture.

There is the possibility of online book packages much like Netflix, and advertising revenue will be a revenue boost for publishers and authors online as well.  Google’s Book Search program is creating the world’s largest library, and preserving a vast amount of world knowledge into a permanent database that will last forever.

The business of search is expanding into nearly every crevice of the World Wide Web; Deep Blue Interactive is your search marketing solution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Instead of looking for clients, what if they found you?

They say an elephant never forgets.  A slew of nationwide libraries intend to act as that elephant when it comes to Google’s new digitized archives for newspapers and books.  The libraries are working together to create what amounts to a backup of the digital library that Google is creating, publicly accessible of course.  The project has been labeled the Hathi Trust, the word Hathi is Hindi for “elephant”, an animal known throughout history to “never forget”.

  The project includes the libraries of 12 Midwestern universities acting together, and encouraging others to join forces with them.   Some of the participating universities are The University of Michigan, The University of Iowa, The University of Illinois, and the 11 libraries that comprise the University of California’s library system.

Google has been scanning the collections and contents of several large libraries for its Google Books Library Project to give internet users access to public domain texts and snippets of copyrighted works.  Google provides a copy of each digitized book for the library it used to obtain it.

Hathi Trust intends to do the same, digitizing over 2 million volumes already today.  Hathi Trust is also including hard to find and fragile books to ensure they stand the test of time.  A majority of the libraries involved in the Hathi Trust project are in agreement to combine all digitized books and news into one giant online accessible database; still offering snippets of copyrighted works.  It is a beast of a move for the information technology realm.  News brought to you by Deep Blue Interactive, your online interactive marketing source in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.