Microsoft's Old School Book Search

Book Search, like Academic and Video search, Local, Toolbar, Desktop Search, Spaces and Maps, follows behind Google (or Yahoo).

All the trailing behind Google doesn't mean Microsoft is poorly executing. Windows Live Search is starting to deliver some startlingly relevant results, with huge improvements even from six months ago. The new 3-D mapping service, also in beta, provides remarkable perspective. Services like Windows Live Expo extend social-networking concepts from online shopping to local buying.

Improving execution maybe, Microsoft still greatly trails Google in search. Late last month, Comscore Networks released October U.S. search rankings, with Google capturing 45.4 percent of the search market. Yahoo followed with 28.2 percent share and Microsoft captured the third position with 11.7 percent share. Americans conducted 6.8 million online searches in October, according to Comscore. Google captured 3.1 million queries compared to 796 million for Microsoft.

Baby Steps, But Progress
The Book Search beta release is a step forward rather than a quantum leap, and it has been a long time coming. Microsoft announced the service in October 2005 and flipped the switch on the beta today.

Microsoft's early offerings are very old-school, full-text public-domain titles obtained through the British Library, University of California, University of Toronto and, soon, Cornell University. Today, Microsoft announced relationships with the New York Public Library and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine.

A search for "Old Man and the Sea," brings up titles from authors like Jack London and Mark Twain--a smorgasbord of books, mainly from early to late nineteenth century. The currently searchable titles, all public domain, are also downloadable as PDFs. In the future, Microsoft would like to use Windows Presentation Foundation as basis for delivery, possibly modeled off The New York Times Times Reader.

Where Microsoft tries to lead Google is approach. Google's Book Search and its aggressive indexing hasn't made many friends. Last year, the Association of American Publishers sued Google over its book search service. The difference in approach is why Microsoft searches and provides older, public domain titles; they are the only kind the software giant has asked the libraries to provide.

Microsoft's Publisher Respect
Microsoft is trying the gentler approach of respecting publishers' copyrights. In May, the company announced a book search product for publishers.

"Rather than going out and crawling the Web, we're working with [publishers]," said Cliff Guren, director of publisher evangelism for Windows Live Book Search.

Guren wouldn't discuss which publishers would use the service, but he acknowledged titles would be a while coming. One hardship is the arduous task of scanning titles, which also explains why Microsoft brought out Windows Live Book Search in beta more than a year after announcing the service.

Microsoft's partner revenue strategy is similar and yet different from Google's. A Google Book Search for "Old Man and the Sea" brings up a number of books, including the tile by Ernest Hemingway. Google does not provide access to the whole book and states the "pages are displayed with permission." However, the publisher isn't U.S.-based and the version of the book is in German. The book's search page provides links for purchasing it from online retailers or searching library catalogs.

Microsoft's basic partner approach is similar, although differently executed. For starters, publishers of in-copyright content will have three preview settings. The publisher would decide how much content people could read. Publishers also would be able to change the amount of displayable content, say, for a sales promotion.

"Longer term, when we make in-copyright material available, we will provide publishers a number of revenue opportunities," Guren said. Microsoft will provide links to content on search pages, as Googles does today. "In addition, we will link to the existing retail channels [for print or electronic sales]. We're also exploring other acquisition methods."

When Guren says "acquisition," he means the consumer obtaining content. Microsoft expects some publishers will experiment with different rights options, such as electronic books that are only readable for a set time period.

Simply stated, Microsoft's book strategy is to help users to search, discover, acquire and consume books.

What is Live?
Besides Windows Live Book Search, Microsoft today announced that starting next week biomedical information would be added to Windows Live Academic Search. The addition quadruples the amount of content available through the academic search service, Guren said.

As Microsoft advances its Windows Live strategy, the company is slowly bringing together a net of disparate pieces that will eventually form a cohesive, connected set of services. However, Microsoft isn't exactly marching to Internet time getting products into and out of beta. While Windows Live slowly advances, MSN remains an important fixture.

Someone proposed in a blog I read this week that Microsoft is going to revive and put a little more oomph back into the portal. That's not how I see it. Windows Live and MSN are now on separate tracks that are fairly defined and easy to understand. Windows Live is where people program their content, by way of stark Live.com (before user customization), gadgets and other tools. MSN is Microsoft's programmed portal, with content put in nice tidy categories for users.

Sign of the times is MSN's position on the desktop. While MSN was the default home page for earlier Windows versions, Live.com has assumed the default position in Windows Vista. The move foreshadows Windows Live's ascending role, even as MSN takes a lesser position.