The Great Library of Amazonia

Books take time to transport. Their text vanishes and their pages yellow in a rash of foxing. Most important, it's still shockingly difficult to find information buried in books. Even as the Internet has revived hope of a universal library and Google seems to promise an answer to every query, books have remained a dark region in the universe of information. We want books to be as accessible and searchable as the Web. On the other hand, we still want them to be books. --Gary Wolf --The Great Library of Amazonia  (Wired)

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Ironically, I just logged on to amazon.com today and saw that they're now enabling searches WITHIN books, not just FOR them. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. Will it slow down the server/searcher? Has the envelope been pushed further into author's rights to exclusivity somehow? I just don't know yet.

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Thu 15h Mike Arnzen: Ironically, I just logged on to amazon.com today and saw that they're now enabling searches WITHIN books, not just FOR... (on The Great Library of Amazonia)