Google Print: A New Era For The Search Engine

While some may wonder what the next step for the search engine industry to take, Google may have already answered that question. Ever evolving, Google has their eyes set on the future with news of their newest innovation, Google Print. Not only will the search engine's newest entity allow room for an exponential amount of growth, Google's written word department may also open new avenues for search engine marketers to pursue.

WebProWorld The announcement of Harvard Gazette explains the university's outlook for the project: "If the pilot is deemed successful, Harvard will explore a long-term program with Google through which the vast majority of the University's library books would be digitized and included in Google's searchable database. Google will bear the direct costs of digitization in the pilot project. By combining the skills and library collections of Harvard University with the innovative search skills and capacity of Google, a long-term program has the potential to create an important public good." While the goal for Google Print is explained on their dependence on advertising revenue, an issue that was noted in their IPO filing, "it's a very short distance between that and, say, an affiliate link to Amazon or any other booksellers for a cut of an in copyright sale. It's also a very short route to the on demand publishing of an out of print and out of copyright book with a company that is set up to do such a deal" Google the publisher? To quote the guys from the Guinness commercial, BRILLANT! However, with every new innovation, there are potential pitfalls that can be encountered. A couple of conversations deal with some of these. Like non-destructive scanning; no doubt a priority from these academic pillars. There are also rumblings of how the American Library Association will react. But, we have quite a bit of time until the problems become reality. Of course, if Google can't meet the expected launch window, these rumblings will grow ever louder Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for latest search news.