p2p news / p2pnet: Microsoft plans to launch a 2006 book-search service so users can search and printed publications online. Just like Yahoo, Google and Amazon. Kind of.

Google has the Google Library, Amazon.com “indexes books for a feature that lets users peek at some pages before buying” and Yahoo backs the Open Content Alliance (OCA).

Instead of “forging its own path in the book-digitizing business - a wilderness of tricky copyright laws and technical challenges” MSN will, “align” with Yahoo’s OCA, aiming to “initially focus on scanning and digitizing classic books not bound by copyright restrictions,” says the Seattle Times.

Bill and the Boyz, “had no interest in manually scanning tens of thousands of books,” the story has spokeswoman Danielle Tiedt saying.

SearchEngineWatch quotes Tiedt as stating Microsoft has committed to fund the scanning of 150K books and, “In the case of these books (public domain content), Microsoft is making deals on their own with libraries (we don’t know which ones) who will provide the content.

“Then, some (but not all of this material, depending on the library and the actual content) will be available as part of the OCA database. Every library that provides a copy of the book for scanning will also receive a file for local use.”

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
Seattle Times - Microsoft to join online book club, October 26, 2005
SearchEngineWatch - Microsoft Announces MSN Book Search, October 25, 2005

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 at 11:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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