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The thing that strikes me about all this craziness over Google Book Search is that Google did an extraordinary thing: they made significant progress toward scan
by jedc 18y ago
The thing that strikes me about all this craziness over Google Book Search is that Google did an extraordinary thing: they made significant progress toward scanning every book ever printed. With great effort (and risk) comes great reward. It would be a huge cost, but I don't see why another company doesn't try to do the same thing.
The monopoly doesn't exist because Google is trying to force other people out; it exists because no other company is willing to take the expense/risk to do it themselves.
- josefresco 18y agoAnd they're doing it all without major government help. Something the major telecoms and old industry titans can't say.
- narag 18y agoCould any other company have done the same? Google is big, has a lot of resources, public goodwill and instant echo in the media. Who else?
- jedc 18y agoAmazon, Yahoo, and Microsoft all come to mind. Yahoo and Microsoft for relevance to search, and Amazon as a bookseller. They're all big enough and technically competent enough to do it, in my opinion.
- narag 18y agoIndeed, But Microsoft is seen in... slightly less favorable light than Google. Amazon's position on the other hand could be a drawback, not an advantage. Such step could have made angry its providers.