Other Crap

Google responds to the Authors Guild suit.

• The authors have actually filed a suit against their own interests, and apparently don't understand the entire concept behind Google print. I suppose that this suit, as usual, was driven by some greedhead lawyers who persuaded the Authors Guild to sue, whether they need to or not.
• Here's how Google Print works: when you search for a term, Google Print shows you which book(s) that text can be found in - and gives links to online booksellers. Furthermore, if some author should be so wrong-headed as to disdain participation, Google will exclude their book(s).
• For example, I searched Google Print for the term "greedy little hustlers." It returned a text excerpt from the very Hunter Thompson book I was looking for, and gave me links to four places where I can buy the book. I then searched for "Uncle Scoopy," and it showed me where we were referenced in a book called "Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon." (Which I had previously never heard of.)
• To my way of thinking, Google Print, like their web search engine, is one of the greatest reference tools in the history of mankind. The people who should really be worried about Google are those who publish reference books and run libraries, all of which are rapidly becoming obsolete. I must own every major reference book, from the OED to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and they are all gathering dust because of Google.