Re: interesting on Amazon

["Joseph J. Esposito" <espositoj@worldnet.att.net>]

In addition to the potential for easing the process of finding just the
book that one wants (and, presumably, to purchase it), the "Search inside
the Book" feature has the potential of restructuring the creation,
presentation, and dissemination of information on the Internet, especially
when the copycat publishers (myself among them:  I have been working on a
similar project the past year) jump in with even more collections of
information that go beyond the confines of published books in the Amazon
catalog.  Most of the "good stuff" simply isn't available freely on the
Internet, as subscribers to this list know all too well, as publishers
"lock up" intellectual property to protect their commercial interests.  
Such IP makes up the "Darknet" or "HiddenNet" or (my favorite) the
"Undernet." Information on the Darknet does not get indexed by search
engines such as Google; therefore the very existence of IP on the Darknet
often, perhaps usually, goes undiscovered--unless you happen to have the
aid of a crafty, old-fashioned human librarian, god bless the breed.

Searching inside the text will influence the creation of IP by promoting
an increasingly atomistic writing style, better to be retrieved by a
search engine; it will influence presentation by stimulating the
publication of indexes (designed with Google in mind) and abtracts; and it
will alter dissemination by leading to a growing sale of slices of data
from larger publications, perhaps the kick-start that micropayments have
needed.

Some of these things are already in place; there is indeed a sometimes
reputable business in "search engine optimization" that drives Google and
its peers mad.  What Amazon brings to the table, in addition to its
trademark breathtaking execution, is the full force of a major consumer
marketing company.  What Amazon wants the world to know, the world knows.

Joseph J. Esposito
President and CEO
SRIC Consulting

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Office of The Provost" <provost@georgetown.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 8:24 PM
Subject: interesting on Amazon

> The Amazon home page this morning had a 'letter' from Jeff Bezos
> (annoyingly posted in non-text format -- it's a picture of a letter, so I
> can't just swipe and copy it) with an interesting new feature.  As from
> today, they offer 'Search Inside the Book,' a feature that lets you search
> full text of more than 120,000 books -- some 33,000,000 pages.  You enter
> your search terms in the usual search box and if they score 'hits' in
> books with this feature, you get the usual entry for a book with a sample
> of the 'hits' below it.  It's offered as a device for finding the book you
> want:  I can't tell yet whether I think it would be useful, but they are
> clearly proud of it.
>
> Jim O'Donnell
> Georgetown University