untangling_the_web

DOClD: 4046925
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While there is no option to limit your search by language, you can also search
Google Books in languages other than English simply by entering a query in another
language, e.g., ["qued6 el moro"] returns only books written in Spanish. However,
many public domain books in other languages have not been scanned because the
Google Book project thus far has focused mainly on US libraries. There are many
Spanish, French, German books scanned into Google Books, for example, but very
few in Arabic.
At the same time many US publishers were fighting Google Book Search, several
European nations complained that Google was not offering to add non-English
language materials to the database. In September 2005, Google opened Google
Book Search to European publishers and added a number of new discrete
webpages for Google Book Search in several non-English speaking countries. They
are:
• Austria
• Belgium
• France
• Germany
• The Netherlands/Holland
• !!£!y
• Switzerland
• Spain
• Brazil
A number of European publishers expressed interest in participating in the
digitization project, but of course similar copyright concerns raised by US publishers
will have to be addressed for European and, eventually, other non-US publishers. 99
Even though users may use a specific country interface, they will probably see
results from other countries' indices. Thus far, the European publishers that have
signed pacts with Google are Grupo Planeta and Grupo Anaya of Spain, De Boeck
and Editions De L'Eciat of France and Springer Science & Business Media of
Holland. Interestingly, all this comes at a time when Google is embroiled in a lawsuit
brought by the US book industry over alleged copyright violations. Google is trying to
avoid a similar fight in Europe by limiting its book scanning to books that are either
pre-1900 or in the public domain or from publishers with whom Google has signed
agreements.
99 Michael Liedtke , "Google Opens Digital Library to European Book Publishers," The Detroit News, 2
September 2005, (14
November 2006).
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