Google Challenges Amazon with Book Search
Google has quietly launched a new book search service which is predicted to rival Google publishing partner and Internet book retailer Amazon.com. Accoding to a Rueters report Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be holding a press conference on Thursday to demonstrate the technology at the Frankfurt Book Fair in an effort to pitch their service to book publishers. The service, Google Print, is to be integrated into Google search results pages where users can browse book excerpts which will be accompanied by a link to buy the book from premier online book retailers.
In Germany Google spokesman Stefan Keuchel “downplayed questions that Google Print would be a rival service to Amazon’s” according to Rueters. Keuchel told Rueters that Google and Amazon plan to continue their business alliance and that Google plans to link to a variety of online retailers, including Amazon, for users who wish to purchase a book. “It’s an advantage for publishers because it offers them the possibility to promote books online. And for users it gives them the advantage of accessing information about authors and books and even to read a little from the books,” Keuchel said.
Currently the Google Print service is open to qualified publishers, authors, and agents, though conversations with Google staff clearly indicated the focus lay on deals with publishers rather than any other players. Current participants include Dell, Knopf, Random House, etc. Google encourages parties interested in joining the program to complete a contact form, which stipulates that applicants must hold the rights for a substantial amount of the content under consideration.
To test Google Print out follow these instructions: (from ResearchBuzz‘s Tara Calishain) To search Google Print content exclusively, add inurl:print.google.com to your search. A search for engineering inurl:print.google.com found over 4,000 results, ostensibly, but only about 500 that actually showed.
