Google Quietly Introduces Book Searches
from the more-more-more dept
You just can’t stop Google, it seems. Last week they were adding features like the ability to track your FedEx packages, and now they’ve launched the beta test of their book search capabilities. While, this is clearly something of a response to Amazon’s famed search inside the book feature, the end result isn’t quite there. While there had been rumors that Google was looking to implement a similar service, what they just (very quietly) launched is much simpler. Basically, they’ve just stored book flap info, and mixed it in with the regular search results (though, as the article points out, it doesn’t show up that high on most searches). However, if you find one, it links to a page within Google that includes the info from the inside flap of the book, a few simple facts about the book and links to buy the book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million (they haven’t even added in pricing info yet). While they don’t have affiliate codes to make money off of those links, I imagine it wouldn’t be difficult to add. The page does have their typical contextual Adwords advertising, though – increasing their inventory.
Comments on “Google Quietly Introduces Book Searches”
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Alta Vista used to be a good search engine–until it tried to become a portal and simultaneously faced a growing web that it could not keep up with.
Seems like Google is going down a similar path. Does anyone else feel like Google’s search results have been suffering recently as they start throwing everything into their search engine? Maybe it’s just me…