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May 23, 2008
Microsoft Closing Live Search Books and Academic Projects
Microsoft has announced that they are closing their Live Search Books and Live Search Academic Projects. While they will still index books and scholarly publications in their primary search index, Microsoft's digitization initiatives will come to an end.
Libraries and publishers are encouraged to build digital archives utilizing the platform Microsoft built with Kirtas, the Internet Archive, CCS, and others.
Commenting on the future of the search business, Satya Nadella Senior vice president search, portal and advertising, wrote on the Live Search blog, "Given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer, and content partner."
What do you think about Microsoft's move to end their Live Search Books and Academic Projects? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at May 23, 2008 11:45 AM
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Comments
The book publishing industry should interpret this as a clear sign: proprietary “book search” technologies are not the path to scalable growth.
In the struggle to reach new audiences, publishers of all formats (whether it be print, music, video or digital text) are engaged in a struggle between piracy and obscurity, where obscurity is increasingly the greater threat. And a closed “book search” system isn’t the answer to that threat. The real opportunity in search lies in the ability to adapt to the search ecosystem through strategic thinking and deliberate publishing mechanisms that allow authoritative content owners to reenter markets they have lost, and dominate existing markets where they currently have no voice. Book publishers that integrate the best of SEO culture into their organizations will realize they can effectively compete with both piracy and obscurity, go head to head with web distribution giants like Amazon.com, and stop letting the specter of “free online content” cannibalize their profits.
Posted by: Jamie Low at May 23, 2008 5:00 PM
