12 replies to this topic

[desmo]

http://print.google.com/

After quick cursory search I found the following books online:

Chevrolet Racing- 1957-1970

Race Car Engineering and Mechanicsi Paul Van Valkenburgh

Formula 1 Technology- Peter Wright

Engineer to Win- Carroll Smith

If you are leery of "web info" here is a treasure trove of good stuff from authoritative writers. There are countless more on all subjects. You can search and read all the text and view the illustrations. There are obviously some important omissions, but you can't beat the price. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

[ciaoduc1]

Am I doing something wrong? I can only read 3 pages or so. How do you get access to the whole book?

Edit:
Never mind I figured it out. You just have to do more searches of the book title. It's rather inconvenient but like you said, you can't beat the price.

[David Beard]

Pretty amazing...

Found this

http://print.google....rYUY1-vSLpz3mZE

[ivanalesi]

ciaodic1, read google's FAQ. They have made this only to promote bookstores, and may be they are on their way to opening the next Amazon or B&N.

[desmo]

Originally posted by ciaoduc1
Am I doing something wrong? I can only read 3 pages or so. How do you get access to the whole book?

Edit:
Never mind I figured it out. You just have to do more searches of the book title. It's rather inconvenient but like you said, you can't beat the price.

It is a little inconvenient, try using a search term that will be common in the book to get you to near the start of the body of the book, then use the page back arrow to get to the first page of the body. Then you can just read through the entire book using the page ahead arrow. I think they've deliberately made it awkward to find page 1 and scroll through the book probably for copyright reasons. It's pretty easy to do though with a little practice. I noted they've disabled "right click" in this, again I'm sure for copyright reasons, but you can use screen capture and image editing software to save pages in spite of this.

Like Google Earth, I could spend days exploring this. It's like having a pretty decent but not great library in your own home.

Anyone here that hasn't read Peter Wright's "Formula 1 Technology", I recommend you do there, if you can't purchase a hard copy. It would inform the discussion here. Here's a link to the first page of the body of the book:

http://print.google....bRX6lkEOXTOOW3c

His Ferrari book unfortunately isn't included however. Hopefully the collection will grow over time.

[Ben]

I'm puzzled, that link only takes me to three pages of the book. I have my own copy, but I'd be interested in understanding how Google print works a bit better.

As for whinging that this is only a ploy to get B&N and Amazon more customers if they can get full text of out of copyright books (the original aim as I understood it) that's good. I had no idea or expectation that it would include books still under copyright.

As far as I can see it allows you to check out a book as you would in a bookstore without making it easy enough that you won't actually buy it.

Ben

[desmo]

You are right Ben, it does apparently only link to the two adjacent pages, I'm still new at this. Input the word "racing" in the box on the left for searching within the book and you will get a list of links to pages enabling you to navigate virtually the entire book. Someone more clever than I might come up with a better search term, I am assuming words such as "of" and "and" cannot be used

I've read that the entire collections of some major US libraries are currently being scanned by Google to create a searchable virtual library. Obviously the IP Nazis will fight this tooth and nail, but if public libraries didn't exist already and the idea of letting people borrow copyrighted books to read without purchasing them were proposed today, those same Nazis would try to- and probably succeed alas- to prevent libraries from ever coming into existence. It in fact astonishes me that public libraries are even tolerated in today's legal climate. Probably the only thing left keeping public libraries from being abolished now is the fear of a massive political backlash.

[hydra]

I thought I had beat the system by changing the URL everytime I wanted to go to another page (the page number is in there with a PA prefix, look for it) but that only worked for 20 pages or so...

[Engineguy]

I'll mention this since nobody else has... Amazon has had this "search inside the book" ability for a year or two now.

In the case of Amazon, they do get the rights holders' permission. If I understand it, I think Google does too... and scanning the contents from library copies is just a logistics thing... they don't have to obtain a physical copy of all those books directly from the publisher.

I've always hated buying books sight unseen. In the 1980s (before the internet and before the big bookstore chains) I was spending $200 to $300 a month on mail-order books and technical papers based on one-paragraph descriptions. My "efficiency" was only about 20%... 80% of what I bought I would not have walked out of a bookstore with. This new ability to browse a book online the same as you can in a bookstore is long overdue. Although it can be "abused" with some effort, it's no different than standing in the bookstore for a couple of hours reading a book (or sitting... it amazes me Barnes & Noble fills their stores with nice comfortable chairs, and that people sit there and read, not browse, but read, unpurchased books for hours... maybe they make it up selling those $4 cups o' coffee).

On Amazon the table of contents is always linked. From the table of contents you can see the chapter titles. The chapter title is, of course, always on the first page of the chapter, so just search for a word in the chapter title. From there you can read forward two-three pages. If you haven't seen enough, look for a unique word on the last page they allowed and search for that word. The search will take you to that page as your new "base page" and you can read forward two-three pages from there. It's very disruptive to your reading, and is NOT like owning the book, but it is adequate to read a few pages of a few chapters to get a sense of the book (i.e. technical level) before you spend $20 to $60 on it.

[red300zx99]

common search term for the peter wright book, Formula 1 Technology by Peter G. Wright fig 1.2

just change the fig number and all seems well and convienent

[Engineguy]

Originally posted by desmo
I've read that the entire collections of some major US libraries are currently being scanned by Google to create a searchable virtual library. Obviously the IP Nazis will fight this tooth and nail, but if public libraries didn't exist already and the idea of letting people borrow copyrighted books to read without purchasing them were proposed today, those same Nazis would try to- and probably succeed alas- to prevent libraries from ever coming into existence. It in fact astonishes me that public libraries are even tolerated in today's legal climate. Probably the only thing left keeping public libraries from being abolished now is the fear of a massive political backlash.

Excerpt from The Business:

Google online library falls foul of copyright

By : Ian Watson August 14, 2005

ONLINE search giant Google has hit copyright problems with ambitious plans to place a vast selection of books online.

The company has temporarily suspended the project after concerns by leading publishers, including Britain's Oxford University Press, who fear scanning material into the world's most powerful search engine will lead to unauthorised use and copying of copyright material.

Google launched its test service, Google Print, in October and later started an attempt to scan books in five libraries to make them searchable online. It has postponed further scanning of copyrighted books from libraries at Harvard University, the University of Michigan and Stanford University.

According to a report in the Washington Post, the New York Public Library and Oxford University, partners with Google in the project, have agreed only to share limited books no longer protected by copyright.

Google Print product manager Adam Smith says on the company's weblog: "We think most publishers and authors will choose to participate in the publisher programme in order to introduce their work to countless readers around the world, but we know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views too. So now, any and all copyright holders . . . can tell us which books they'd prefer that we do not scan if we find them in a library."

But the Washington Post reports that some publishers are claiming that Google has rewritten copyright law by scanning in whole books. They also argue that by asking authors and publishers to contact it if they do not want their published work searchable online, Google is placing the burden of protection on authors and publishers.

Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive of the American Association of Publishers, said: "We think they have to stop this entirely." Her group had been trying since June to negotiate with Google.

[GasedX19]

Thanks Desmo,

I just posted a thread about recommendations for books and made a suggestion that a Sticky section be created for authoritative sources. I like Engineguy am frustrated with hit and miss purchasing and think a section dedicated to authoritative sources would be a great resource as well as informed reviews-not marketing crap.

Cheers

David

[Superliner II]

Nice one Desmo. You have made my day