Quote:
Originally Posted by khalleron
Huh. I read the article, and all I saw was an assertion without evidence that Google had pulled all its programmers off it.
... It's just gossip.
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True enough ... since on Monday Google issued a press release supporting the program. See:
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/...n-and-now.html
Scott Dougall is the director of product management for Google Books and Publisher's Weekly reported from the BEA conference this week:
Though there wasn’t too much Dougall could say about the future of Google eBooks, he did report that the international rollout will kick into high gear this year, with the ultimate goal of making Google eBooks available in 100 countries. Cagily, he [Dougall] answered an audience question about a possible Netflix-style book-rental system by saying, “We haven’t announced anything like that. Yet.”
You can read more here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...and-facts.html
That doesn't sound like Google is walking away from the product any time soon.
But it's also true that Google tries lots of things and does drop them after a time if they can't figure out a way to monetize the service. The latest casualty is Google newspaper archive scanning / search service which was closed this month. Google spent a lot of effort in that space, including buying out dedicated business competitors, but, you know ... if you are a product manager at Google you need to generate revenue eventually ... that's why you are there.
And lastly, Google pushed Eric Schmidt aside as leader earlier this year and that usually means ALL projects will receive fresh scrutiny as a company attempts to reorient itself after major changes at the top. So ... Google eBooks is certainly being eyed afresh.