A delivery system for books that few people want is not a business one builds for financial reasons. Over history, such projects are usually built not by the market but by mad emperors. No bean counter would have approved the Library of Alexandria or the Taj Mahal.
Slate columnist Tim Wu • In a passionate plea to keep the Google Books project alive. Wu explains that the project is in jeopardy due to the fear of monopolistic concerns by Web competitors and the Justice Department. Wu emphasizes that Google is doing it for the public interest alone, and they’re doing a great service by keeping all these out-of-print books alive. Even considering copyright and all that other stuff, that’s a great reason to keep something like this alive. • source
This spiffy tip comes from friend of the site Charles Apple. Remember Weekly World News, the craziest supermarket tabloid ever? Well, it’s Web-only now – it stopped printing a couple years ago – but Google Books has the entire archive of back issues online to sensationalize your life. Awesome.source