Google Adds a Host of Magazines to Book Search

Yesterday Google announced  that they are beginning plans to add issues of magazines, including New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony, to Google Book Search.

Using the same scanning technology used to upload books to the web, which automatically recognizes each word and indexes it into Google’s search engine, Google will be uploading entire issues of magazines, pictures and all. Magazines will be searchable page by page, and will will show up in the Google Book Search.

Eventually magazines will even show up in normal Google searches, meaning a search for world’s most challenging crossword, for example, will produce links to New York Magazine not just in the Book Search, but in any old query.

In my opinion this is an interesting and important move by Google. Google’s launching of the ambitious Book Search service was a great step towards open information, ensuring that many important books are made available to the broadest number of people possible. Information best serves us when it is available to everyone, and by providing access to many pieces of literature through the internet Google has brought information to a huge number of people.

Magazines are a slightly different issue though. While it is normal for many influential books to be made available for free, magazines are a different story; the magazine industry is deeply profit driven, and, except for a few exceptions at libraries, many magazines are generally only available through subscription. Nonetheless, magazines often offer unique and important insight into world affairs, and by making them available online for free, Google has made a bold move towards open access to such things.

If nothing else, the ease of getting access to magazines has been increased greatly; after all, the internet is far closer to home for most of us than the library or magazine store.

Check out Google’s blog for more info.