Maps and Memory

Posted by Matthew Rascoff, MBA Intern, Book Search and Matt Grimes, Engineering Intern, Street View

A Google engineer we know named David was recently browsing Book Search, when he came upon the book Pictorial Mileage Road Book: Every Mile a Picture, published in 1915 by the Motogram Company of Richmond, CA. He was amazed to realize what he had, in effect, discovered: a 93-year-old version of Google Maps Street View.

Just like today's Street View in Google Maps, the Pictorial Mileage Road Book "enables one to plan a tour intelligently, to carry it out with certainty, and to have a permanent pictorial record of the whole trip." Indeed, this record was quite permanent -- many of the streets pictured in the book still exist, and can even be identified in Street View today.

This is the "Street View" of the corner of Macdonald and San Pablo Avenues in Richmond, CA, circa 1915.



And here is what the same corner looks like in Street View on Google Maps today.



Clicking on the "Find this book in a library" link shows that there are only four copies of the Pictorial Mileage Road Book cataloged in libraries around the world. And a Google search reveals that there only two mentions of it on the entire web outside of Book Search. This is, in other words, a pretty obscure book.

Thinking of this book, we couldn't help but think: how many other projects have historical precedents of which we're unaware? Or, more generally, what other parts of our lives could be illuminated by the past?

Even something as simple as the morning cup of coffee has a secret history, which is left unconsidered by the majority of people, and probably with good reason. But if you did want to uncover something about the production, chemistry or even etymology of coffee―well, that information is available in All about coffee, a 700-page tome from 1922 that's dedicated to the favorite morning beverage of millions.

These two books―both freely available on Google Book Search―illustrate that even over the course of the years, we still think about the same things. Perhaps there are other unseen histories that Book Search can help you unearth, too.

[NFGB] Link - from Google Book Search Blog Related From Google Blogs: Fast PDF viewing right in your browser @Twitter: Welcome to Google Friend Connect　 Where in the world is... Square is the new round.

Magazines come to Google Book Search

posted by Punit Soni, Product Manager

Over the past couple of years, we've made an effort to bring specialized content like Patents, News Archives and the LIFE Photo Archive online. Today, that effort continues--we're beginning to add magazines to the Google Book Search index, so that when you search on Google Book Search, you'll be searching across the full text of both books and an ever-growing number of magazines, which will appear tagged with the keyword "Magazine" in search results.

Check out our post on the Official Google Blog to learn more.

[NFGB] Link - from Inside Google Book Search Related From Google Blogs: Daniel connects Googlers across the world YouTube Google Desktop Gadget Get your Gmail stickers Google Message Security helps the team at Rutgers University Athletics

Welcome, Bienvenue, Willkommen Europeana: the EU Launches Its Digital Library

Posted by Santiago de la Mora, European Partnerships Lead, Book Search

Today, we learned of some good news for the promotion of culture and reading: the European Commission launched an important online project called Europeana. This European Commission effort creates a common access point to Europe's digitized resources. Over time, it plans to grow to include six million items, including film, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, newspapers and archives. The collection will include everything from the Spanish National Library's Beatus commentaries from the 10th century to the Greek National Library's original publications of Homer's epics and hymns to the Danish Library's portrait collection dating from the 17th century.

Digitization projects like Europeana send a strong signal that authors, publishers, libraries and technology companies can work together to democratize access to the world's collective knowledge. The more of these projects, the easier it will be for readers and researchers around the world to be able to search books and other materials that now are scattered throughout the globe and and difficult to access.

As we move ahead with Google Book Search, we look forward to finding new ways to collaborate on initiatives such as Europeana -- and taking part in what could become the biggest technological leap in disseminating knowledge since Gutenberg invented the printing press.

[NFGB] Link - from Inside Google Book Search Related From Google Blogs: With the new Google Toolbar, orkut's never more than a click away Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat Ghoul Books, Bat Puns Reactions: easily engage your readers

Search physical books with Android

Posted by Jeff Breidenbach, Engineer, Google Book Search

My mom recently sent me a copy of The Last Lecture, a book based on the inspiring talk given by Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch a few months before he passed away. I particularly remember him starting the talk with push-ups; a poignant introduction to the topic of terminal illness.

The Last Lecture was one of the first books we tested on the Barcode Scanner application, a new searching tool available for download on Android-powered phones. Here's how it works: when you open up the application, the screen will show what the phone's built-in camera is seeing. When you line up the camera in front of a book barcode, it will automatically zoom, focus and scan the ISBN - without you even needing to click the shutter. As you can see below, you'll then have the option search the full text of the book on Google Book Search right away.

Here, I'm searching for push to find all the pages that mention push-ups, and they're displayed below the search box.

For students, this could be an easy way to locate that critical passage that the professor was talking about in lecture. Or if you're browsing through the shelves of a bookstore, you could use this application to easily determine whether a book contains the information you're looking for.

This is the first release of this program, so there may be some hiccups. Most of the books supported by this tool were printed in the mid-1990s or later, because it took some time for ISBN barcoding standards to stabilize. And of course, not every book is on Google Book Search. Yet even with these limitations, it's a lot of fun to search through a paper book using your mobile device, and I think the tool opens up new ways to experience printed works.

[NFGB] Link - from Inside Google Book Search Related From Google Blogs: New Google Help Forums The art of the field study Ghoul Books, Bat Puns Tip: Your email, wherever you are on the web, with Toolbar

Ghoul Books, Bat Puns

Posted by Hicham Alaoui, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Tomorrow is Halloween, so to help get you into the spirit, we've gathered a bunch of the best scary classics you can find on Google Book Search and added them to our special Halloween books section. You'll find everything from old favorites, like Dracula or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to more obscure spooky characters, like the student-turned-zombie out for revenge in Gregory Lamberson's Johnny Gruesome. or the creepy ghost haunting The Old Willis Place in Mary Downing Hahn's tale. These and other fun stories will be featured on the front page of Google Book Search.

And if you're dying for more, you can find other eerie tales at google.com/scarystories. Search the full text to find out who famously uttered "nevermore," why Van Helsing was forced to behead the "bloofer lady" and how Ichabod Crane met his untimely end in a tranquil glen called Sleepy Hollow.

The fun doesn't stop there -- if you see a "Download" button, you're free to download, save, and/or print a PDF version to read at your own pace. If you rediscover an old favorite or new story you want to own in hard copy, the "All editions" link will show you multiple editions, many of which are available for purchase.

Happy Halloween, and as you start this tasty meal of scary tales, bone appétit!

Link - from Inside Google Book Search
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Unlocking access to millions of books

Posted by Adam M. Smith, Director, Product Management

We've always said that in a sense, Google Book Search is as old as Google itself. Back in their Ph.D. days, Larry and Sergey dreamed of a way to make it easier for anyone, anywhere, to access the information held within the world's books.

Today, we're excited to announce an agreement with U.S. authors and publishers that dramatically expands access to millions of books online, taking us one big step closer to fulfilling that dream. If approved by the Court, this agreement will unlock access to millions of out-of-print books to the benefit of users, authors and publishers.

To read more about the agreement, head over to the Official Google Blog. To read more about what this means for users, check out our microsite.

Link - from Inside Google Book Search
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Blasting off with an X PRIZE book

Posted by Mike Fabio, Google Liaison and Community Manager, Google Lunar X PRIZE

Hello, my name is Mike Fabio, and I've been working on the Google Lunar X PRIZE. As you may know, the Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million competition sponsored by Google to send a vehicle to the Moon, travel a distance 500 meters there, and send high definition video, images and data back to Earth.

On September 13, 2007, the Google Lunar X PRIZE was launched at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA, which makes today our birthday! But wait, hold up, hasn't the X PRIZE been around for a while? Yes, in fact it has, and it can all be traced back to a book―one that's available on Book Search.

In 1994, Peter Diamandis received a copy of The Spirit of St. Louis, the autobiography of famed pilot Charles Lindbergh. Dr. Diamandis realized that he could realize a lifelong dream of his―traveling into space―through the creation of a prize similar to the one awarded to Lindbergh for flying over the Atlantic. Soon after, Diamandis established the X PRIZE Foundation.

In early 1996, the St. Louis community, in a return to its early roots as a center of the aerospace industry, committed to provide funding to become the first headquarters of the X PRIZE Foundation. On May 18th, 1996, under St. Louis' Gateway Arch, the creation of the first X PRIZE competition was announced. The X PRIZE Foundation was proud to have the participation of Erik and Morgan Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh's grandchildren. Erik Lindbergh remains a member of the X PRIZE Foundation Board of Trustees.

Here's a brief excerpt from the book that launched it all, in which Lindbergh makes a proposal to take up the standing challenge of transatlantic flight:

"Mr. Thompson," I start out, "I've come to ask your advice about a project I'm considering."

He smiles and nods encouragement.

"You've heard about the Orteig prize of $25,000 for a nonstop flight between New York and Paris," I continue. "I think a modern plane can make that flight. I'd like to try it. It would show people what airplanes can do. It would advance aviation, and it would advertise St. Louis."

I go on to explain that I want to get a group of businessmen behind me to finance the project and give me the prestige I'll need in dealing with aircraft manufacturers.

Help us celebrate the birth and birthday of the Google Lunar X PRIZE by giving this fascinating book a read.

Link - from Google Book Search Blog
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But where to start?

Posted by Frances Haugen, Associate Product Manager, Google Book Search

One of the most exciting things about Google Book Search is that there are always new books to discover. But where to begin? When I first joined the Book Search team over a year ago, I started exploring the concept of "horizontal navigation" - in other words, finding new books which might interest you based on an initial book or set of books that you like. Since then, we've explored a number of ways to go about this, and today we'd like to announce the first fruit of those efforts: a new iGoogle gadget which allows you to manage your Google Book Search Library and receive customized recommendations based on the books you save, whether you're interested in DIY or molecular gastronomy (yum!).



As you might have noticed, iGoogle launched some new features today as well. With the release of canvas views (larger versions of gadgets), you now have more space to explore recommendations, or, once you've found a promising book, to preview and read books right inside the gadget using the new embedded viewer API. Your new favorite book could just be a click away.

Add this gadget to your iGoogle page:

Link - from Google Book Search Blog
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Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools

Posted by Alex Diaz, Product Manager, Google Book Search

Today, we're taking a big step towards bringing more books, across more sites, to more people online.

We're launching a set of free tools that allow retailers, publishers, and anyone with a web site to embed books from the Google Book Search index. We are also providing new ways for these sites to display full-text search results from Book Search, and even integrate with social features such as ratings, reviews, and readers' book collections. By providing tools that help sites connect readers with books in new and interesting ways, we hope publishers and authors will find even wider audiences for their works.

What does this mean for readers? Well, since we've partnered with a number of booksellers to enable preview functionality for their sites, one way you may come across this feature is by simply shopping online for books. For example, suppose you've turned to the Books-A-Million site to look for a book on the history of your hometown (say, Mountain View, California). When you see a book that looks promising, you can now click on "Google Preview" to browse through the book just as you might in the physical store, without ever having to leave Books-A-Million's website.




As on the Book Search site itself, you can search within the book, zoom in and out on the page, and browse up to 20% of the book. And because Google Previews are supported by the same infrastructure as Google Book Search, publishers and authors gain access to a larger distribution platform without changing the amount of the book they display to any given individual.

This Google Preview feature is now live on retailer sites around the globe, from Books-A-Million to Blackwell Bookshop and The Book Depository in the UK, A1Books in India, Librería Norma in Colombia, Van Stockum in the Netherlands, and Livraria Cultura in Brazil. Over the coming weeks, this functionality will roll out to even more booksellers, including Borders.com, Buy.com, and Powell's Books.

Beyond these retailer partnerships, we've also worked with a wide array of sites and organizations to bring Book Search functionality to their users:

• Library catalogs. It is now possible to preview books―including a huge number of works in the public domain―right from the online catalogs of the University of California and the University of Texas, as well as through WorldCat.org, a service that lets you search across the collections of more than 10,000 local and institutional libraries worldwide.


• Publisher and author sites. The Arcadia Publishing web site has descriptions of its books about towns from Mountain View to Medford--and now, thanks to the Book Search integration, you can peek directly into these books as well. O'Reilly, Macmillan, Apress, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Stanford University Press have incorporated preview functionality into their sites, as well.


• Social book sites, which allow users to organize and share their reviews, ratings, and favorite books. You can now import your Book Search My Library collection straight into your aNobii account, or preview books within the weRead gadget for social networks. Be sure to also try out the exciting integrations by BookJetty, GoodReads, and BookRabbit.

Of course, we know that even more sites will also want to work with the Book Search index in ways we can't even imagine. That's why we've made these tools an open set of APIs, which anyone can use to build applications drawing on the unique search results and preview capabilities provided by Book Search. If you'd like to try out these APIs on your website, check out our brand new developer site.

Ultimately, we believe that these tools and partnerships further our quest to make books more discoverable on the Web, from your Google search results to your favorite bookstores, publisher and author websites, online library catalogues, and social networks.

Want to learn more about the many sites now offering Book Search functionality? Check out our Who's using it page.

Link - from Google Book Search Blog
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