What is the Google Books Project?

Many people are heralding the Google Books project as the next big thing in the world of books and literature. However if you are reading this , you are probably still asking, "what is the Google Book project?"

Good question, the Google Book project is Google's attempt to add as many books as possible to its database, and make them available to the public. But how do they do this without infringing on copyrights and getting sued by major publishing companies? Well, Google goes about this in different ways according to different types of publications.

Still in Print Works: These books are still being published and Google only posts a sample of the work. There are also links on the sample page to other websites where one can purchase the book.

Out of Print Works: If the book is out of print or in the public domain, often times the entire book will be posted online and even available to download. This is possible because with no copyright protection there is no way to control the book's distribution. Readers can find a large collection of classic literature in this section of the Google Book project.

Orphan Works: An orphaned work is one that is still copyright protected but the owner of the copyright cannot be identified. Google makes these works available for public consumption while waiting for the copyright holders to come forward.

Magazines: The Google Book project also scans magazines into the database. Many of these are available in their entirety, even including vintage advertising. In fact, the entire collection of Popular Science has just become available to read.

How does Google Books do all this? Advertising, it is all done via advertising. There are still the usual ads on the side that bring in money for Google. Google also gets a cut of the profits from books sold through the Google Books project.

What does the future have in store for the Google Books project? Well, Google could start selling digital copies of these books for reading off-line on PCs and ereaders. This would give them a leg up on the competition in the digital books market as the content would be more portable and not limited to a single device (Amazon Kindle...). Whatever the future holds, the Google books project is something people will want to keep on their radars for research and pleasure reading.