Google Book Search

Google has a habit of producing web applications that are proofs-of-concept. They stick the word 'Beta' into the logo, and produce a very impressive application that does something few people thought could be done in such a way, even though the concept has not yet been proven and, usually, they haven't come up with a way to make money from it. I think it's fairly impressive - while to Google these are only side-projects, they are still serious projects which have had serious resources put into them.

You can read what I wrote on this page about Google Book Search. It was originally called Google Print Library Project, and it was a joint project by Google and some large academic and public libraries to scan 15 million books within a decade (I think that figure comes from Wikipedia, which came from a press release).

A number of things are impressive about it. The sheer number of books which are stored is the least of it: Google is no stranger to storing and indexing staggeringly large amount of information.

The interface is quite original. Not satisfied with relying on the Adobe Reader Plug-in, Google instead have created their own, web-based, reader interface which doesn't need PDF at all! It's a very nice change from other e-books which load up as PDFs, or worse, in which every separate page loads as a separate PDF! Google averts such nightmares with its own web-based reader, which in a lot of ways is actually faster and easier to use. Faster, because they are using AJAX techniques (as much as I hate that term) to place content on the page without reloading the entire page, so I can continuously scroll through and Google will load each page just as I am about to reach it (unless I run into some copyright-justified limit of course). Easier to use because, well, the problems of reading PDFs on the web should be well known. Reading PDFs on the web is just a nasty experience overall, and one I prefer to avoid.

Apart from the few times I have wanted to find some technical information and a Google search has landed me half way into a book on Google Book Search, I haven't really used it much. As technically impressive as it is, I don't yet prefer to read for enjoyment while I am browsing the web unless it is pretty short and low-brow (feeds for example), and if I need to look up something technical I usually find it in a more web-palatable form than in a book. But I have to admit it has come in useful to me at least once.