Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. has announced that it will be offering an online service for searching books and other writings, and also said that it will try to avoid the legal hassles currently being experienced by rival Google Inc..

Initially, Microsoft will work with the Open Content Alliance. This organisation also includes Yahoo Inc. as one of its members. Microsoft may charge users for the service to avoid the aforementioned legal issues.

The general manager of Microsoft's MSN online unit, Danielle Tiedt, said: "I think about the [initial] 150,000 books as a test." A beta version of the service will be launched next year. The company also plans to work with publishers and authors.

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I don't care who does it first, so long as it's free and public...

What do they mean searching books? Like searching your local libraries online or like searching books and then being able to download the book (like a pdf or something) so you can read it?

They can do that?

But even if they do, I wouldnt read the entire book off my computer screen. That feels so wrong.

Yeh, well the people who use the millions of ebooks on filesharing services would love it...

I would use the hell out of it.

I concourr

Is Google print an early version of this? I just did a search and it brought up some books that had information on the subject I'm doing. I think the entire book was online and I needed my Gmail account to login to it.
It was great... took me to the page of the book that had the words I searched for and I can reference it in my assignment as being a book not a web site.
This is something I wasn't expecting but I like were its headed now (for research).

Likely