Google has begun expanding its controversial Book Search, adding archives and selected current magazines to its searchable database of printed material. Just like with Google Book Search, pages can be seen in color and in context with the issues in which they appeared: users can flip forward and back to see adjoining items, and the complete text of the issues is completely searchable.
“For years, we’ve worked to make as much information as possible accessible online, whether that information comes from books, newspapers, or images. We think that bringing more magazines online is one more important step toward our long-standing goal of providing access to all the world’s information,” wrote Google engineer Dave Foulser in the company’s blog. “In many cases, these magazines aren’t just history as history, but history as perspective—a way of understanding today.”
According to Google, Book Search now offers access to more than a million articles, and eventually plans to migrate searches for magazine articles out of Book Search and into general search results. Google has secured permission from the magazine’s publishers to offer the material online, and provides links to the publication’s official sites and has set up unspecified arrangements to share advertising revenue generated by magazine searches with the publishers. Users can currently limit searches to just magazines.
