Microsoft Launches Live Search Books

With the world going digital, new online products and services are constantly being introduced.  Earlier this month, Microsoft expanded their online offerings by launching a beta version of "Live Search Books."

With the consortium of blogs and message boards on the Internet, sometimes legitimate information is not so easy to find online.  A Microsoft spokesperson said that Live Search Books is helping users sort through information by making trusted sources -- that is, published books -- available online:

"Live Search Books is advancing the way people search online by digitizing and indexing information from the world’s printed materials.  There is a lot of trusted and authoritative content that can only be found in books today.  We want to make that content accessible to people who are using Live Search."  (Source: techwhack.com)

Many have been quick to point out that Microsoft's introduction of Live Search Books make the company a direct competitor to Google Book Search.  However, Microsoft's approach to offering book content online is fundamentally different than Google's.

While Google has maintained a lofty goal of making all literary content available through their Book Search service, it has come under fire for using copyrighted material without obtaining publishers' permission first.  Google is now battling lawsuits from various organizations, including the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Authors Guild.  (Source: channelregister.co.uk)

Microsoft was a bit more pragmatic in their approach, and has chosen to launch the service with non-copyrighted material.  While the company intends to include copyrighted material in the future, it plans on obtaining permission from publishers beforehand.  (Source: channelregister.co.uk)

Literature from the British Library, the University of California, the University of Toronto, Cornell University, the New York Public Library, and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine are all available on Microsoft Live Search Books.  (Source: cio.com) 

To try out the free service, visit:

http://books.live.com