Microsoft Books to Challenge Google Books

Microsoft has launched an online library in a move to compete against Google's controversial project to digitize the world's books. Consumers benefit any time when two industry giants meet in head-to-head competition. In this case, genealogists will benefit as they have even more free genealogy and local history books to search.

Microsoft launched a U.S. test version of Live Search Books a few weeks ago. The new service already has tens of thousands of out-of-copyright books, including works held by the British library and major universities in the United States and Canada.

I checked Live Search Books and found several hundred genealogy books are already available, although not nearly as many as are available at Google Books. The several pages from the Microsoft site that I displayed on my computer all seemed to be crystal-clear and easily readable. I was also able to download and save entire books as PDF files.

The search page on Microsoft's Live Search Books is simple and uncluttered. However, the search results are not nearly as accurate as that of Google Books. A search on "Eastman genealogy" on Google produces a long list of genealogy books that contain the name "Eastman" somewhere within the pages of each book. The same search on Microsoft's Live Search Books seems to produce a list of books with either word alone. In other words, it finds many genealogy books that do not contain the word "Eastman" as well as many books that do mention that name but do not have the word "genealogy" anywhere between the covers.

Even with this limitation, Live Search Books is a good service for genealogists. Keep in mind that its limited search capabilities may limit its effectiveness for anyone searching for surnames that are also common English words, such as Green, Black, or Town.

Microsoft has book-scanning partnerships with New York Public Library, the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine, the University of California system, and the University of Toronto, according to Microsoft project director Cliff Guren.

Live Search Books "was created with copyright laws in mind," according to Guren. "It is focused on scanning and indexing out-of-copyright books or books where we have the express written consent of the copyright holder to scan them."

You can search and read genealogy and local history books right now on Microsoft's Live Search Books at http://books.live.com.

Comments

[Rod Nelson]

This just in from Publishers Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6422387.html?nid=2286

Microsoft Takes Google to Task over Copyright
by Jim Milliot

Microsoft, which is boosting its efforts to catch up to Google in the search arena, used yesterday's AAP annual meeting to make a highly charged pitch to differentiate Microsoft's approach to creating searchable databases from that of its competitor. Unsurprisingly, the major difference articulated by Microsoft associate general counsel Thomas Rubin is Microsoft's respect for copyright, compared to what he described as Google's disregard for the concerns of copyright holders. All of Microsoft's initiatives to expand search access to books are being done without violating copyright, Rubin maintained.

Microsoft has two projects--Live Search Books Academic and Live Search Books--that are currently beta testing. Both respect the intellectual property of copyright holders, Rubin said; the two initiatives are using only books that are out of copyright, in the public domain or have been supplied to Microsoft by their publishing partners. Google's decision to scan books from the collections of its library partners that are still under copyright resulted in ongoing lawsuits from publishers and authors. By including copyrighted books in its Google Book Search, the company "turned its back" on its publishing partners, Rubin asserted.

Google's approach may allow it to create a searchable database quicker than Microsoft, but the path taken by Microsoft will be better for authors and publishers in the long term, Rubin said, since Microsoft will work with its partners to help them make money from the search projects. Microsoft wants to enhance the value of works online, not merely "rake in billions of dollars" from content created by others, Rubin said. While Rubin contended that Google's approach does not let publishers and authors profit from Google Book Search, publishers do receive money from ads placed against their titles.


For the full article, click on the above URL.

[Jason Presley]

I fail to see the basis for the argument about Google "raking in billion" from others work. There are no ads in Google's book search, just as there are no ads in Google's news search, which all those European newspapers are whining about. Aside from Google perhaps making a commission off books sold through Amazon should someone decide to click to buy a book in Google's database, I fail to see that their complaint holds water. ANYONE can set up a site as an Amazon affiliate and make a commission.

I don't hear any companies complaining about Amazon's preview feature. Is it just because Amazon is obviously a retailer and Google is simply purporting to provide search results?

[Claire K]

Jason, you are using a very limited approach to Google's business model. Whether or not ads are placed with the material is only one (minor) factor. The more content and features Google has, the more it dominates the search engine market; the more it dominates, the more it attracts investors, its stock value increases, and the amount it can charge for advertising on other parts of the site increases, etc.

Apparently, Google makes a complete electronic copy of each book, which is sets aside as a master (in case of later technical problems), a second complete copy of each book, which is put into its database, and a third complete copy of each book, which is given to the participating library. Under US copyright law, the library does not have the right to make an electronic archival copy of its holdings (though there are special rights for libraries, they do not go this far), so how can the library purport to give Google permission to do so? Only the copyright owner (usually the publisher, acting as the author's agent under their publishing agreement) has this right; Google needs to license this right from the publisher, so that the publisher, and, through them, the authors, are compensated for this use of their work.

As for Amazon's preview feature, my understanding is that the publishers work with Amazon to provide this service, so it is not at all the same issue.

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

Well put Claire. Also, I'm sure that Google has never contacted the owners of web sites (of which I am one) to ask permission to make copies of their copyrighted work to help them sell ads. They do that as well. Oh well, it's a Brave, New World where Intellectual Property rights don't mean anything unless you're Google and need to protect your own work. I'm sure they must have some of their own work, you know something they haven't borrowed or bought from someone else.

[helen]

Why can't I get into http://books.live.com

Is it because it is in Beta? If so why don't you say that?

[Dick Eastman]

Microsoft Books is available to you and to everyone else right now. It is open to all, no passwords or anything else required. Just go to http://books.live.com and start searching.

- Dick Eastman

[Harry]

Nothing makes progress more than a competition between rivals in our free enterprise system.

[Susan Daily]

Another difference with the two search engines is that in Microsoft Books, you can't go to a certain page number easily in the book. Google has a box you can use to jump to another page, even if it is one that isn't a search result. With Microsoft's site I could download the whole book, and then jump to the page, but this isn't helpful if you don't really need the book, or only have dial-up. Anyone else see a way to get around the pages, and not just by one page at a time? Thanks. (Perhaps one of the beta testers will suggest this!)

[Mark Barker]

The site just sits there with a blank page, staring at me, unresponsive.

[Mark Barker]

The site just sits there with a blank page, staring at me, unresponsive.

[Dick Eastman]

Yes, it sits there with a big search box at the top of the page waiting for you to enter your search terms and then click on the magnifying glass icon.

The page will not do anything until you tell it what you are searching for.

- Dick Eastman

[Jay]

Search worked fine using "Surname, +genealogy" without the quotes.

[Jay Rogers]

I'm on a Mac, and it didn't work for me. Books showed as a beta "more" which could not be accessed by my cursor.

[Ruth]

This site worked well for me...I got a 'biography' of one of my ancestors from a book written in late 1800s. Only problem is, the biography involves 2 pages which I would like to copy for myself, BUT I can't figure out HOW TO COPY these 2 pages. Does anyone know how to get a copy of a page on this site without having to download the entire 500 page book??

[Connie Radde]

I get tired of searching through the number of results I get. Because the surname I want to search is "Blood," and the search engines don't seem to recognize capital letters, I get results from every bloody blood word in every bloody book! Is there a secret to making a common word like blood be recognized when it is capitalized?