Microsoft Launches Beta of Book Search Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 6, 2006 - 2:27pm.

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft has launched a beta version of its book search engine, CNET News.com reported. The company eventually plans to incorporate the full texts of the public domain books it is indexing into its general search engine.

Unlike rival Google's book-scanning project, which has drawn copyright litigation from publishers, Microsoft is only scanning non-copyrighted books, and those copyrighted books that publishers ask to have included, making the full texts available for view.

By contrast, Google's service planned to scan all books into the index, and provide only small snippets of copyrighted works -- but lack of permissions from publishers has drawn lawsuits.

Microsoft's book index initially includes works from the British Library, the University of California and the University of Toronto; the company plans to add additional titles from the New York Public Library, Cornell University and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine.

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