In Defense of Google Books

In my continuing series of "Yeah what he said" posts:

http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/money-trail/2009/06/23/defense-google-books

So I have to be clear: I work for Google, but I don't work on Google Books and I don't speak for the company. This blog is my personal reaction as a reader. I love reading and I'd really like to be able to get access to the back catalog of human thought. So I get very upset when I read articles in the popular press that decry or vilify the book deal because it is an easy headline. At high level it looks like it is a win for all parties.

Maybe I'm just coming from the wrong perspective but it seems like a good deal from an author's point of view. Author's can opt at any time to change what information about their book is presented and Google Books otherwise acts as an additional distribution method. And even better, books can continue to be available and in distribution even after they are no longer being printed in dead tree format- that seems like a big win! There seems to be some concern about pricing but I find hard to believe Google gain anything by ripping off the customer (who won't buy) or the author (who will withdraw the right to sell). Did I mention that the authors can actually make money out of a book that is no longer available in dead tree format?

Publishers seem to profit to me too since for books that ARE in print they'll get extra promotion. Book stores benefit since in print books will point to a book store where you can buy it.

There is even a concern that Google will have some kind of "monopoly" on information. Well, given that Google has now forged the prototype agreement it should be much cheaper for someone to go down this path again breaking the 'evil' monopoly. But this actually makes information that would otherwise not be accessible open to readers again. And for that it should be applauded and supported.

Google is not beyond reproach and like any large organisation its actions should be inspected closely. But many of the critiques of the Google book deal that I've read so far don't offer much thoughtful analysis and merely cloak the deal in FUD. As a reader I would be angry to see the huge back catalogue of out of print books snatched from my grasp without very good reason. And so far, I haven't seen any good reasons.