Reading in Cyberspace


Google Book Search, amongst many other new technological creations, is yet another addition to our technology-based society. Google Book Search pretty much makes life easier for all of us because it takes away the hassle of locating books that are no longer in print and under copyright. Google has created this extension to their company to provide an index for free to the public by scanning a large number of books in the public domain, books that are copyrighted and still in print, and books that are copyrighted in the United States but are no longer in print. For the books that are in public domain, Google has decided to grant full access. As for the books that are copyrighted and in print, Google only provides as much access as the publishers and authors allow them to give. Lastly, as for the books that are copyrighted in the United States but are out of print, Google will grant only snippets. Despite, what I think are reasonable terms Google has created referring to the amount of access it will provide to the public, this development in the Internet world has created a tremendous amount of controversy.

Part of the controversy this creation has stirred up is it's relationships with publishers. This library-based digitization can do nothing else but weaken its relationships with publishers because if not anybody else they are the ones who seem to be the farthest away from being supporters. As publishers of the books Google is supposedly using in an unfair way, it is only natural that they are against this new movement because in their eyes they aren't being respected. Google is profiting from their work and they aren't being given a "piece of that pie". In the perspective of a publisher they are being taken away from the equation as they are ignored from any considerations - both not being asked for permission and not being given any of the profits Google compiles. Regardless of what "fair use" truly means, publishers seemingly have their own meaning of those words which they intended to follow. Although the confusion of the actual meaning of those words are lingering around this controversy publishers seem to pay no mind and are following their own principles - which states that Google's use of their work is not "fair use".

No longer are publishers the only ones included in this new development Google has created, whether it'd be on the positive side or not, but its competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft has now hopped on to the band wagon. Much like anything successful in life, Google's competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft, are attempting to beat what Google has successfully created. They are putting forth an effort to compete and keep up with the rising status of Google for creating Google Book Search. However, with no recent answers to this advanced technology in the Internet world from either Yahoo or Microsoft, as of now, they can only wish to have thought of such a thing before Google had.

Without consideration of the disagreements some people have on Google Book Search, it in fact provides a much improved and increased access to information. In a generation where much is done through computers and the Internet, this invention doesn't differ or shy away from that new tradition or trend. Today, there isn't much information kept in a record that isn't inducted into a computer or a database simply because our era has become technology-based. Therefore, with such a development like the Google Book Search, we would be able to have access to a large number of books that without this would quite possibly be invisible because they are no longer in print. We would not only be able to attain books available today but we would also be able to have books from years to decades ago within our reach. Without the Google Book Search locating books that are no longer in print would be like finding a needle in a haystack. And so accordingly, the Google Book Search will definitely increase the public's access to information because it will broaden our opportunities and selections as the limitation line is largely erased.

Although this new development does increase our access to information I don't believe librarians would be threatened by this. It is a fact that with the Google Book Search you would be able to view books on the Internet. However, as discussed earlier, certain books can only be viewed as "snippets", some can only be viewed as much as the publishers or authors will allow, and while only a small percentage can be fully viewed. This means that not all existing or previously existing books can be read off and attained completely from the Internet. Therefore, this also means that people would not have to entirely restrict themselves from taking a trip to their local library for books they might have gotten a preview of from the Google Book Search.

Above all disagreements and attacks by others, I think the Google Book Search is nonetheless a positive contributor to the development of the Internet. In my perspective, the Google Book Search is in no way attempting to degrade any traditional way of accomplishing anything - which in this case would be going to the library and borrowing a book we may need or want as we would do it the old-fashioned way. It baffles me why others choose to attack the Google Book Search specifically, when many other programs making up the Web do the exact same thing or almost the exact same thing. Am I skipping a beat or is there even a difference between using a reduction of an original copy of an image and a reduction of an original copy of a book? Competitors like Yahoo also take "properties" of other websites and organize them into an index available to the public similar to that of Google's. So if Yahoo basically performs the same actions as Google, why is it that Google is the only one attacked? Why are there no lawsuits intended for Yahoo and any other websites that carry out similar functions to question their supposed "fair use". The conclusions people have on the Google Book Search, I believe, are biased and unjust. I think the only reason why Google is attacked for this development they have created is because it is obvious to others that this would definitely rake in the big bucks and no competitor wants to see that. Anybody who feels threatened by this development with no answers for it can do nothing but attack them and try to bring them down. However, as unfair as people choose to be, I believe the Google Book Search is a great creation that could help us all whether we discover that now or later on. This development, I think, is helpful enough to change the minds of neigh sayers and even turn them into users.