LiveSide - News blog : Windows Live Book Search

Windows Live Books launches, Academic Search update

Chris — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 11:01:00 GMT

Today sees the launch of Windows Live Book Search, a service we first posted about back in May along with the launch of its sister site Windows Live Publishing Portal. Designed to provide access to books indexed by Windows Live Search, the main features of Book Search include:

Navigation through books using a special 2 pane viewer.
Searching for terms inside a book
Ability to freely download most books in pdf form for offline reading

Microsoft is taking a different approach to that of Google's Book Search, both in its opt-in approach for smaller publishers and libraries, and by the choice of books to index. It is mainly concentraing on out of copyright and public domain books, however in-copyright books can be submitted for free through the Publisher Portal. Of note is the major libraries that deals have been secured with over the past year, including

Cornell University
The American Museum of Veterinary Medicine
The British Library
The New York Public Library
The University of California
The University of Toronto

In related news, Windows Live Academic Search also has an update today.

On LiveSide: Windows Live Book Search

Microsoft Signs New Book Search Deals

Darren Straight — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:44:00 GMT

BetaNews is today reporting that Cornell University and Kirtas Technologies, a maker of scanners and digitization software have said that Tuesday they signed deals with Microsoft to support its Windows Live Book Search Project. Microsofts answer to Google Book Search, announced in late 2004.

“We believe that searching and finding relevant book content will become an important and integral component to the search experience of Web users worldwide,” said Danielle Tiedt, General Manager of the Live Search Selection Team at Microsoft. “That’s why Microsoft has made the decision to enable this experience as a key part of our strategy to compete in this arena.”

Cornell University would be the latest addition to the Windows Live Book Search catalog. Librarians at the school would decide which books to scan, and oversee the scanning process to ensure quality, Microsoft said.

Windows Live Book Search differs from Google’s offering in the way that it scans books. Whereas Microsoft has an opt-in process, Google is doing the opposite: publishers are required to opt-out if they don’t want to participate. This method has angered publishers, and triggered several lawsuits.

Microsoft announces new Book Search publishers

Chris — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:54:00 GMT

From the press release : Microsoft Corp. today announced two key advances in Windows Live Book Search, a service that will enable Web searchers to find answers from authoritative, trusted book content. The addition of two new participants, the University...(read more)

Windows Live Publisher Portal launches

Chris — Thu, 18 May 2006 11:03:00 GMT

No sooner had I posted about the Windows Live Book Search , than I found that members of the Book Search team were already doing some work with publishers. Cliff Guren, Director of Publisher Evangelism for the service spoke recently at the International...(read more)