Google Book Search was launched secretly launched in 2002 and has been pretty low key until the past couple of years, more so in the last year. It uses their search technology to look at text/ excerpts in books that may be of interests in you, giving search results of where to buy and if it is available to borrow in a library near you.

Integrated with their Google.com main site, you might have already been using it but have not noticed it. You can view books in three ways: Full, Limited and Snippet view. There are times where previews aren’t available as related to brand new or books that aren’t given online viewing permission from the authors or publishers.

Their main objective (which has met with a certain amount of controversy) is to eventually digitize all the books in the world and make them easier for people to find and buy.

So why has such a universally useful tool become so controversial?

Because some in the publishing community question whether any third party should be able to copy and index copyrighted works so that users can search through them, even if all a user sees is the bibliographic information and a few snippets of text, and even if the result is to make those books widely discoverable online and help the authors and publishers sell more of them. Some of our critics believe that somehow Google Book Search will become a substitute for the printed word.

The books come from Google’s exclusive Partner Program or their ambitious Google Books Library Project, a project that includes library collections from various library sources around the world.

What can I do once you’ve found a book you like?

* Browse: Click the forward-facing arrow to browse available pages. If you?re in one-page mode, simply scroll down to see all available pages. You can also choose to view the book in full-screen mode (filling your browser window).

* Search within the book: Click on additional search results to see other pages containing your original search term, or try a new search within the book.

* Buy the book: Click on one of the links to online booksellers to go to directly to a page where you can buy the book.

* Find it in a library: Many books have Library Links. Look for the “Find this book in a library” link to find a local library that has a copy. Learn more.

* Learn about the publisher: Click the publisher’s logo to go to the publisher’s website and find more books from that publisher.

Site [Google Books]

There would soon be a dose of video advertising from Google (especially from Sony and Warner Music Group content) and will be made available for publishers in the AdSense Network. However, only a small select view will show these lucrative ads.

Christian Oestlien, Product Manager for Google’s AdSense wrote in his blog:

There are many things in life that go hand in hand — peanut butter & jelly, wine & cheese, milk & cookies — and for publishers, AdSense & great content sites. We hope that the next perfect pairing will be “great video content & your audience.”

Over the next few weeks we’ll be testing AdSense video distribution and sponsorship with a small group of publishers. You may remember us doing a similar trial last year with MTV Networks, where we distributed ad-supported MTV video content to publishers who displayed the content on their sites. This time, we’ll be working with a larger set of content providers, grouping together video content from providers such as Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment together with quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. Participating publishers range from small to large, and cut across many different types of content.

While we’re unable to invite additional publishers into this test, we still want to share some of the exciting things we’re working on in AdSense. We know our publishers are passionate about developing quality content and providing the best experience possible for their users. With this test, we hope to offer you new forms of engaging, relevant content to meet these goals.

As with other video streams, the ads will allow the viewer can choose to play the accompanying video. Those being selected will likely receive a significant click through rate from showing the ads. You are out of luck if you weren’t selected, it is a fair assumption that music related sites and sites of a certain demographics will be targeted.

Source [Google Adsense Blog]

Because of the company’s enormous growth [doubling each year with 200 new employees every week], Google has been looking at other ways to make the hiring process smoother and more successful.

Previously known for only hiring ‘top of the class’ graduates with no less than a 3.7 grade-point average, they are looking at alternatives to finding more well-rounded individuals.

?As we get bigger, we find it harder and harder to find enough people,? said Laszlo Bock, Google?s vice president for people operations. ?With traditional hiring methods, we were worried we will overlook some of the best candidates.?

Now with a complex 300 question survey, Google hopes to get the right people, not necessarily the most book-smart.

?We wanted to cast a very wide net,? Mr. Bock said. ?It is not unusual to walk the halls here and bump into dogs. Maybe people who own dogs have some personality trait that is useful.?

?More and more in the time I?ve been here, we hire people based on experience as a proxy for what they can accomplish,? he said. ?Last week we hired six people who had below a 3.0 G.P.A.?

Read [WeirdTechNewsHub]

A few months ago Google began a pilot program that put 100 advertisers in 66 daily newspapers and their unsold ad space. Much like brokers who buy and resell ad space to last-minute advertisers, Google is allowing businesses to bid online for a paper’s excess ad inventory.

“The volume [of ads sold] is tripling where we thought it would be,” said Tom Phillips, director of print ads at Google. “I think we’ll have real impact next year” on newspapers’ bottom lines, he said. “We open the medium to a whole new class of advertisers.”

Read more

The open source movement happened quietly for all but those of us who are most aware of up-to-date technology news. It was a movement started in the late ?90?s to allow for users to view source codes and make alterations to them with the purpose of improving existing computer programs and then redistributing them for wider use.

One of the most well-known names in the open source business today is Jeremy Allison. He is most recognized for his work on Samba, the program which allows open source updates to Linux through a Windows-based system. Today, however, he is making the news not for his technology skill but for his choice to leave employer Novell in order, in part, to be able to further the goals of the open source movement.

Allison?s resignation from Novell comes as a result of what he feels are limitations on his work created by a patent agreement which Novell has with Microsoft. There is nothing legally wrong with the agreement between Novell and Microsoft. However, Allison and many others feel that the agreement crosses the boundaries of the open source movement in that it does not allow for equal rights to all of the program?s users.

Allison plans to continue his work on Samba but will be doing so through new employment at Google, a company known for supporting the open source movement.

Read ZDNet Australia for additional information.