Re: Google responds to Amazon

["Gherman, Paul M" <paul.gherman@vanderbilt.edu>]

I am not sure how wide spread knowledge of the Amazon/OCLC agreement is,
but soon when someone searches for a book in Amazon, and they do not find
it, they will be taken to a library in their zip code that does. OCLC
worked with Amazon to link to WorldCat to do this. Libraries can opt out
if they do not want the public finding items in their collection.

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Gherman, Paul M
University Librarian
Vanderbilt University
611 General Library Building
419 21 st. Ave South
Nashville, TN 37215
615-322-7120 voice
615-343-8279 fax
Email: paul.gherman@Vanderbilt.Edu


--On Monday, October 27, 2003 10:49 PM -0500 "Joseph J. Esposito" 
<espositoj@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> The following appeared on Publishers' Weekly Online Daily
>
> Joe Esposito
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ***