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Fish or fowl?

Concerning Google Print, whether or not one finds the service to be
satisfactory may depend on what metaphor one brings to it.  Is Google
Print supposed to be a library?  If so, it is a highly unsatisfactory one,
as snippets of text are hardly a substitute for an entire book.  But it
was not as a library that Google sought the participation of publishers.  
For publishers GP was postioned as a form of bookstore.  Google would find
the books, display the snippets, and encourage the purchase of the books.  
>From what publishers tell me, it is working.  To put the point more
emphatically, if anyone finds GP to be satisfactory as a library, then
Google could be accused of misleading publishers.

-- 
Joe Esposito