MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

andym · 10-03-2007, 03:55 AM

I've just had a look around on Google and yes there are more full text versions than I thought originally, a really nice facsimile of Alice in Wonderland, but unfortunately the Nostromo seems simply to be a facsimile of a Plain Label Books rehash of the PG text which is a shame - it would be nice to have a facsimile of the original book as the PG text has errors.

Nekokami. I know that Google is a commercial enterprise - thanks for the reminder.

The point I was making was that there was a lot of great PR about the fact that Google was going to be digitising the collectlons of universities such as Oxford University's Bodleian library. A huge part of the humanity's cultural patrimony (much of which is out of print) that could be available to a wider audience. Something to get excited about. What we get is something that is mainly excerpts of books that are already easily accessible on the public market - Google's facility is for the most part no different from Amazon's 'Search Inside' system. I know Google is a commercial enterprise, but you'd think that if they were going to go to the trouble of scanning these books that they would find a more imaginitive way of using (and making money out of) that resource - for example, I came across one text via a Google search which I would like to read but it costs about $130. I'd happily pay something to be able to read it online (or put up with advertising or whatever).

I think that as things stand, Google has got the balance wrong, if Google Books is too beholden to publishers and isn't valuable to readers and researchers, then they simply won't use it and ultimately that reduces its value to advertisers. If I want to buy a book I go to Amazon, Google are going to have to offer me something more than Amazon offers me before I go to them instead.

10-03-2007, 03:55 AM	#15
andym Groupie Posts: 189 Karma: 793 Join Date: Oct 2006	I've just had a look around on Google and yes there are more full text versions than I thought originally, a really nice facsimile of Alice in Wonderland, but unfortunately the Nostromo seems simply to be a facsimile of a Plain Label Books rehash of the PG text which is a shame - it would be nice to have a facsimile of the original book as the PG text has errors. Nekokami. I know that Google is a commercial enterprise - thanks for the reminder. The point I was making was that there was a lot of great PR about the fact that Google was going to be digitising the collectlons of universities such as Oxford University's Bodleian library. A huge part of the humanity's cultural patrimony (much of which is out of print) that could be available to a wider audience. Something to get excited about. What we get is something that is mainly excerpts of books that are already easily accessible on the public market - Google's facility is for the most part no different from Amazon's 'Search Inside' system. I know Google is a commercial enterprise, but you'd think that if they were going to go to the trouble of scanning these books that they would find a more imaginitive way of using (and making money out of) that resource - for example, I came across one text via a Google search which I would like to read but it costs about $130. I'd happily pay something to be able to read it online (or put up with advertising or whatever). I think that as things stand, Google has got the balance wrong, if Google Books is too beholden to publishers and isn't valuable to readers and researchers, then they simply won't use it and ultimately that reduces its value to advertisers. If I want to buy a book I go to Amazon, Google are going to have to offer me something more than Amazon offers me before I go to them instead. Last edited by andym; 10-03-2007 at 05:40 AM.