Journal eldavojohn's Journal: Microsoft's Online Library of Copyrighted Works 1
Both Microsoft & Google have started services to search books. But Google has faced litigation and even some publishers thanking Google for exposure. Recently, to avoid the problems Google faced, Microsoft has asked a select few publishers to allow users to see their books and a number have agreed: Cambridge University Press, McGraw-Hill Companies, Rodale and Simon and Schuster. Try searching on something like 'computer vision' [warning, browser intensive], you'll need to sign into Live but it will tell you a percentage of how much of the book you can view. The top result is 35% viewable while they all seem to fall within the 10%-50% viewable range. This means that you can select pages (and they have them coded for relevance of search) and view that percentage of pages. I pulled up "Machine Vision for Advanced Production" and was able to view 69 pages (of my choice) before I couldn't view anymore. Very interesting and quite useful, I must admit.
Interesting that these publishers would come around. I am personally of the opinion that if publishers would put their works online, they would not only see more sales but also build names & reputations for themselves. It's odd because I know the professors & authors aren't making much on technical books or theoretical books, it has to be the publishers. So strange that the only business model they know is to sell their product at an extremely high price to very few people. Hopefully we are approaching a future where publishers are willing to work together with search companies to make their books more accessible rather than being dejected & sued (Viacom/RIAA methods).
Interesting that these publishers would come around. I am personally of the opinion that if publishers would put their works online, they would not only see more sales but also build names & reputations for themselves. It's odd because I know the professors & authors aren't making much on technical books or theoretical books, it has to be the publishers. So strange that the only business model they know is to sell their product at an extremely high price to very few people. Hopefully we are approaching a future where publishers are willing to work together with search companies to make their books more accessible rather than being dejected & sued (Viacom/RIAA methods).
Premium magazines coming around too (Score:2)
It's interesting the way online commerce is evolving. Consumer Reports [consumerreports.org] and The Economist [economist.com] both went online as a way to offer additional value to their paying customers (and no one else). After a while, they began allowing non-subscribers access to a few morsels, while reserving the feast for paying customers (CR stills follows this model). The Economist has recently added a new option: upon arrival at their site, they give you the option of watching a short commercial in exchange for access to premium conten