[15846] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
More Google Print Queries
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Hart)
Fri Jun 10 20:40:19 2005
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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0506100845080.26132@pglaf.org>
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 08:46:20 -0700
Reply-To: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@pobox.com>
From: Michael Hart <hart@PGLAF.ORG>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
google6.mos
I have added some materials below, would you please take a look
and make suggestions or comments???
If you have comments on any of these questions, or could add new
questions for consideration, please email me at hart AT pobox.com
or at hart AT pglaf.org
After 6 Months of Google Print
What are YOUR experiences with Google's eBooks?
I am writing an article concerning various points of view from a
hopefully wide range of people with various experiences with the
new Google Print and would like YOUR input.
We are coming up on June 14, 2005, the end of the first 6 months
of the project that received millions of dollars of publicity on
December 14th, 2004, when Google revealed that it had "invented"
the idea of the electronic library.
Here are several aspects of Google Print people have commented a
number of times on, and YOUR comments would be appreciated, both
on these topics and any additional topics or points of view your
own experiences have brought to light.
1. Is Google Print in full swing yet?
2. How easy is it to find what you want?
3. How easy is it to save what you find?
4. Has anyone figured out how to download the entire text file?
5. Has anyone figured out how to download the entire .jpg file?
[These last two only in public domain cases.]
6. How many total books have been completed?
7. How many books were done in the best week?
8. How many books were done in the best month?
9. How does the information appear to you when you find it?
10. Can you change the appearance to suit your own taste?
The real questions concerning Google's eBooks are:
1. Is the project going as planned?
2. Are they producing as many books as planned?
3. How is the quality of the searches?
4. How is the quality of the text files?
5. How is the quality of the image files?
6. Have they run into copyright problems?
7. Where will this project be in 10 years?
1. Is the project going as planned?
In the entire half year since Google "invented" eBooks
on December 14, 2004, there hasn't been any publicity,
at least that made the major news media, so it's quite
hard to tell from an "official" standpoint.
2. Are they producing as many books as planned?
The initial claims that the hardware was already there
and ready to use and that the libraries were all ready
to provide 10-15,000 books per week for scanning, seem
to have vanished in terms of publicity, but we CAN see
that some Google Print eBooks are actually online, but
it's hard to figure out how many.
At 10,000 books per week for 50 weeks of the year, the
project would generate 1/2 a million books per year.
At 15,000 books per week for 50 weeks of the year, the
project would generate 3/4 million books per year.
Thus it would take 20 years to accomplish their stated
goal of 15 million eBooks in 20 years, at 15,000/week,
but I recall the original goals being set at 10 years,
or perhaps even 15, with no mention of 20 years.
3. How is the quality of the searches?
Apparently they modifed the Google Print search engine
from the standard Google search engines to make up for
a serious lack of accuracy in the eBooks as searched.
4. How is the quality of the text files?
Doing a careful reading of the "hits" returned, it was
apparent to many users that the actual eBooks searched
had not been proofread; hence the need for the engines
to be modifed to do "fuzzy searches" that would get an
ordinary number of "hits" from sources that matched in
only a general manner to the quotation entered.
5. How is the quality of the image files?
Apparently the quality level of the image files was to
be chosen at a level that was readable to humans, then
NOT readable to machines, so Google could retain eBook
"ownership" rather than have people download an eBook,
as they do with most other eBooks on the Internet. In
addition, it would appear Google has placed invisibles
in front of the real files, so that if you download an
eBook you are reading, you actually get invisibles.jpg
instead of the actual picture you were seeing.
6. Have they run into copyright problems?
While there have been various threats and sabre-rattle
noises from several sources claiming copyright hassles
will ensue from Google's activities, I am unaware that
any actual legal cases have been files, and even if it
were so, I would bet that these would find some manner
to be settled out of court, with no admission of wrong
and no mention of the settlement payments.
7. Where will this project be in 10-20 years?
I would like to think that technology will continue to
advance, and that even if Google does not manage to do
as well as they had hoped in the first years that they
would be able to play "catch up" and do much better in
the later years of their project.
The real question to ask is how well will this project
serve the general population?
Will it be mostly aimed at the elite, or will it see a
reasonable use by the person on the street?
Will the books be of general interest, or will they be
aimed at the elite?
Will the image files be restructured so they can be an
example of what can be used on the new deviced that it
appears will be getting smaller and smaller?
Will the text files ever be proofread in a decent way?
Will the text files ever be downloadable?
Will the image files ever be downloadable?
These are all great factors in the usefulness of eBook
files when presented to the public.
However, I am presuming that the scholarly elite would
be included in some different kind of distribution for
them only, much as Internet 2 compared to Internet 1.
If you want to look up "The Balcony Scene" from "Romeo
and Juliet" and use it in a paper you are writing then
I'm am afraid you are going to be out of luck with the
Google Print source materials, as you will not be able
to import what you see on the screen into your paper--
instead you would have to type it in word for word, as
if you were reading it from a paper edition. It would
be much easier to use any of the thousands of files of
"Romeo and Juliet" that have populated the Internet in
the last decade.
Added questions so far:
How useful are the Google Print eBooks in comparison to
to the full text eBooks we have been used to?
How permanent is the Google Print project?
In light of the New York Times and others announcing in
recent statements that previously free services will be
now only available on a "pay per" basis, should we take
the Google Print project as another example of this, or
yet another questions, will they complete the project?
Thanks!!!
So Nice To Hear From You!
Michael
Give FreeBooks!!!
In 43 Languages!!!
As of June 08, 2005
~16,433 FreeBooks at:
~ 3,567 to go to 20,000
http://www.gutenberg.org
http://www.gutenberg.net
We are ~64% of the way
from 10,000 to 20,000.
We are ~29% of the way
from 15,000 to 20,000.
Now even more PG eBooks!!!
Project Gutenberg Consortia Center
In 104 Languages!!!
http://gutenberg.cc
http://gutenberg.us
and
Project Gutenberg Europe
http://pge.rastko.net [Project Gutenberg Europe]
http://dp.rastko.net [Distributed Proofreaders Europe]
Michael S. Hart
<hart@pobox.com>
Project Gutenberg
Executive Coordinator
"*Internet User ~#100*"
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