Google responds to Amazon

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

The following appeared on Publishers' Weekly Online Daily

Joe Esposito

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The Amazoning of Google? Search Firm Goes the Other Way; Looks for Book
Content

With Amazon getting all the ink for trying to become more like Google, the
search-engine company has been doing something perhaps almost as notable:
trying to become more like Amazon.

For the last few months, Google has been courting publishers, hoping to
convince them to turn over book content that could be used in Google's
database, say people close to the discussions.

How that content would be presented is not clear, but it would likely not
be provided in excerpted passages to customers, as it is on Amazon.
Instead, the material would go into a database that Google spiders would
comb, then turning up relevant links.  If a user clicks through, they
would be sent to a separate page that contains a book abstract and the
opportunity to buy the title. Who would actually be responsible for the
sale would be a decision presumably left to the publisher.

Google declined to specify its plans, saying only that it has had some
contact with the book industry. "We're talking to a few publishers and
always looking to add more content that will make the search more useful
for customers," said the firm's Cathy Gordon.

But according to a report from one publisher, Google has said it has
reached agreements that allow it to enter as many as 60,000 titles in its
database and also presented extensive mock-ups to publishers of how
book-relevant searches will look.

Google has maintained that its goal of increasing search effectiveness
puts it in a very different position from a commerce site like Amazon. But
Amazon's desire to enhance its search tool could up the stakes for
everyone. By awakening the sleeping copy in books, Amazon might finally be
drawing the publishing industry into the same arena of other print media,
which long gave up trying to shield itself from the Web, in turn creating
a wealth of book content online - and plenty of disagreement among
publishers and authors. More later in the week.--Steven Zeitchik

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