Saturday, October 13, 2007

Wire Loose

Wired notes the 'rumor' regarding Random House's possible inclusion in the Google Book Program. It was mentioned as an aside by Peter Olson in a panel meeting at Frankfurt. I don't believe this article is particularly accurate and commented as such. Especially this quote:

As for Random House's rumored about-face, there's certainly the distinct waft of
desperation to it; a struggling publishing company facing stagnant sales and falling revenue trying to "compromise" with a internet titan.

Wired

1 comment:

Adam Hodgkin said...

Interesting that although Google Book Search is rampaging ahead (with both library and publisher submitted books cascading into the service) they havent yet made any of the commercial distribution moves that you anticipated in your May blog posting.
http://personanondata.blogspot.com/2007/05/google-lending.html
Also Amazon appear to be on the brink of something (Kindle?) but the key step is missing. Ready to launch but not launched. Are these big players still rather perplexed about the appropriate licensing model?