Create an Account
username: password:
 
  MemeStreams Logo

New York Times: Amazon plans to allow full book searches

search

Elonka
Picture of Elonka
Elonka's Pics
My Blog
My Profile
My Audience
My Sources
Send Me a Message

sponsored links

Elonka's topics
Arts
  Sci-Fi/Fantasy Literature
  Movies
   Movie Genres
    Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films
  Folk
  TV Game Shows
  SciFi TV
Business
Games
  Role Playing Games
  Trading Card Games
  Video Games
   PC Video Games
   Console Video Games
   Multiplayer Online Games
Health and Wellness
Home and Garden
  Genealogy
Miscellaneous
  Humor
  MemeStreams
   Using MemeStreams
Current Events
  War on Terrorism
  Elections
Recreation
  Travel
   Asian Travel
   North American Travel
Local Information
  Missouri
   St. Louis
    St. Louis Events
Science
  Astronomy
  Biology
  History
  Medicine
Society
  Futurism
  History
  Politics and Law
   Civil Liberties
    Internet Civil Liberties
    Surveillance
  Media
   Blogging
  Philosophy
  Relationships
  Religion
Sports
Technology
  Computers
   Computer Security
    Cryptography
   Cyber-Culture
   Human Computer Interaction
   Web Design
  High Tech Developments

support us

Get MemeStreams Stuff!


 
New York Times: Amazon plans to allow full book searches
Topic: Technology 8:29 pm EDT, Jul 22, 2003

] Executives at Amazon.com are negotiating with several
] large book publishers about an ambitious and expensive
] plan to assemble a searchable online archive with the
] texts of tens of thousands of nonfiction books

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think it could be really useful to find out if a particular piece of information that I'm looking for is in a book somewhere (especially if I can't find it elsewhere online). On the other hand, one of the most frustrating things in the world is to get a search engine hit on some info I need, only to find out that I'm then expected to buy an entire book in order to see the one page I'm interested in (which may or may not even have exactly what I was looking for in the first place!). It sounds like Amazon is considering some sort of limited "context" searching though, so it might still be useful.

Something else that doesn't get mentioned in the article, is how libraries fit into the mix. I haven't yet found a good "all libraries in the country" database yet, but there are a few good starts out there, where I can type in the title of a book, and get a listing of every library in a certain area that has that book available. A natural next step, would be for libraries to offer the full text of all of their books online to their local communities... Are Amazon and Google and book publishers going to protest that when it happens? I dunno . . .

New York Times: Amazon plans to allow full book searches



 
 
Powered By Industrial Memetics
RSS2.0