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Amazon Launches Full Text Book Search

m00nun1t writes "Amazon have launched a new service that allows you to search the full text of books. This sounds like an incredibly useful function as well as technically impressive at this scale. I wonder if a patent is in the works." Or if a patent is already owned.

169 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah, but.. by michaelhood · · Score: 4, Funny

    can you do it with one click?

    1. Re:Yeah, but.. by KDan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Some web sites have 100's of A4 pages, but google still returns in a jiffy. I'm pretty sure their book collection is well indexed, if they're offering this service. Probably with the google engine, too.

      Daniel

      --
      Carpe Diem
    2. Re:Yeah, but.. by SdnSeraphim · · Score: 1

      If I had only known that I was ahead of my time! I've been scanning and OCR'ing my books since 1997 with full text search and scanned page views and everything. Certainly others have done this before me. I don't see how anyone can think this is a novel idea (no pun intended).

      --
      It is dangerous to be right on a subject on which the established authorities are wrong. - Voltaire
  2. Amazon... by Ianoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How useful is this, considering that we can't see what's in the books before buying?

    Sure, you can search for some random phrase. But who's to say it's not out of context, or there's nothing more that's relivent in the book?

    1. Re:Amazon... by capojava · · Score: 1

      It shows the term you searched for in its context, like Google does.

    2. Re:Amazon... by will_die · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It is really nice, I was using amazon right as they switched it one.
      I was searching for books on Object Role Modeling(ORM), I had first done a search for ORM and did not find anything of interest. They then switched it on while I did a search of 'Object Role Modeling', this poped up a few books with the text where it was being used.

    3. Re:Amazon... by Ianoo · · Score: 1

      Agreed, I've just been playing with it myself, and it does in fact seem like a really good feature. I guess they've done their research, because they could have come up with an implementation far worse than this!

    4. Re:Amazon... by DerPflanz · · Score: 1

      According to the article (or the howto guide, which it is), you can browse 2 pages back and forth, so you can see the context in which it is used.

      --
      -- The Internet is a too slow way of doing things, you'd never do without it.
    5. Re:Amazon... by hdparm · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't know but your search for relivent will return zero results every time.

  3. abuse by technix4beos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can almost hear the screams of joy from the underground book pirates.

    How easy can this service be abused, with automatic webbots doing the searching?

    I can imagine there might be filters, time limits, and max searchs/day limits for something of this scale, no?

    --
    user@host$ diff /dev/urandom /dev/uspto
    1. Re:abuse by Maskirovka · · Score: 4, Interesting
      How easy can this service be abused, with automatic webbots doing the searching?
      You can only browse two pages in either direction per search. You also have to be logged in. I suppose someone could script a system to create thousands of account, then use an army of zombie machines to OCR the pages from a variety of different IPs. That is assuming that Amazon has EVERY page of every book available to the service, which I doubt.

      It would probably by easier to coble together a robot built around a laptop with an ocr equiped camera and book manipulation software and set it loose in a big library at night. For 50 years.

    2. Re:abuse by chicoy · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the exact same thing. After the search term is submitted, the book excerpt is displayed. There's definitely a way to abuse the system (by grabbing the first/last few words of the excerpt and then using those words as the search term - wash rinse repeat). There must be a way to stop that

      Actually, I think this search facility is excellent. I always wished that I had a full text search on my books/newspapers/magazines. I always remember a phrase and its context, but never where it came from. The next step is for Amazon to give me an electronic copy of the book I just purchased, so I can do my full text search... and then I wake up.

      --
      ~the keyboard is mightier than the pen.
    3. Re:abuse by Enoch+Root · · Score: 5, Informative

      You 'almost', but not quite, hear the book pirates, most probably because they don't formally exist. ebooks are widely available in unencrypted format, and the latest releases, while in secure formats such as Secure MS Reader or Adobe, are probably much easier to crack than creating a bot to collect a book online page by page.

      ebooks are a pretty healthy alternative to normal books, but I don't see the publishers worrying too much about piracy. Perhaps it's because the average script kiddie who will spend 2 days downloading Matrix Reloaded from Usenet is just not the type to try and crack open a book, much less crack an ebook.

    4. Re:abuse by Stalker_reklatS · · Score: 2, Funny

      uhm, you must log-in with credit card data... ...will pirates risk so much for a book?

      --
      ----- Sorry for poor english, I usually speak Klingon -----
    5. Re:abuse by hikaru1 · · Score: 1

      yeah, i was stuck on that "authorizing..." page for about 10 seconds. i'm sure i wasn't really waiting for some kind of authorization. it's just to make the any bots run incredibly slow. also, i noticed that i get way too many results with this kind of search. i don't wanna look through thousands of results for one book!

      --
      i'm an artist.
    6. Re:abuse by Ianoo · · Score: 1

      So... if your extract is on page 1, you can see 1 & 2. So pick an unusual word on page 2, search for it. Then you get 3. Pick an unusual word on page 3, search for it, then you get page 4...

      Get my drift?

    7. Re:abuse by wfberg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How easy can this service be abused, with automatic webbots doing the searching?

      Not so easily. It's easy to see why. The books will be scanned in using OCR. These days a fast and convenient and almost error-free process. But not entirely error-free. Good enough to find documents that are highly relevant to a particular keyword (if "hydraulics" occurs 9 times, what are the odds of OCR getting it wrong all 9 times?) but not good enough for entirely automated book-to-text.

      If amazon would display highlighted portions of the books contents if would probably not exceed a few lines, just like google doesn't present entire webpages in it's result screen). If they did want to show more, they'd have to show an image of the scanned in page anyway, since OCR errors would not be very pretty. (A lot of digital archiving products use a similar approach; they index PDF files that contain the OCR'ed text, invisible to the end-user, and the scanned pages as content which the end-user looks at).

      Besides, to search for each page of a book, you'd have to search for a keyword on each page of that book. Such keywords would most easily be extracted by scanning in the book via OCR anyway!

      --
      SCO employee? Check out the bounty
    8. Re:abuse by MikeXpop · · Score: 1

      "I can almost hear the screams of joy from the underground book pirates."

      Librarians?

      --
      Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
    9. Re:abuse by h8macs · · Score: 1

      Whoa you mean I am unique! ;-) Wonders never cease!

      --
      :-( --- argh. Despair, I owe again. :-b
    10. Re:abuse by magores · · Score: 1

      Every rush to amazon, pick a random book, and do a search for "The".

      It's called "stress testing under load".

    11. Re:abuse by *xpenguin* · · Score: 1

      They don't index the word "the". Try "that". You can also use it to read most of the book (there's a page limit per book and a monthly limit per all books)

    12. Re:abuse by Ryan+O'Rourke · · Score: 1
      That is assuming that Amazon has EVERY page of every book available to the service, which I doubt.

      According to the Welcome Letter (mirror) on the front page of amazon.com from Jeff Bezos, Amazon has indexed every word of more than 120,000 books for searching.

    13. Re:abuse by magores · · Score: 1

      That's a good call on the the vs that situation.

      I didn't even think of that.

  4. um...spell "launches" correctly please by spamchang · · Score: 1, Insightful

    please /. spell your titles right...! launches with an e!

  5. It works!!! by jabbadabbadoo · · Score: 5, Funny
    1) I typed 'porn'
    2) It returned a lot of results

    Conclusion: It works!!!

    1. Re:It works!!! by The+Ancients · · Score: 1, Funny
      Conclusion: It works!!!

      Follow on conclusion: You won't...

  6. Hmmm... by 00420 · · Score: 1

    It looks like you can see the full page when you do a search. I wonder if searching for (Book Name) 1, (Book Name) 2..., would let you read the book page by page.

    1. Re:Hmmm... by 00420 · · Score: 1

      I hate to reply to my own post, but my idea doesn't work. Shoulda' tried before posting, I know.

    2. Re:Hmmm... by KDan · · Score: 1

      Thinking before speaking is not in everyone's reach...

      Daniel

      --
      Carpe Diem
    3. Re:Hmmm... by alphakappa · · Score: 1

      You can only browse two pages forward or backward if you end up on a page. This prevents you from reading the entire book online - unless of course, by some accident of fate, your search result returns every fifth page :-)

      --
      "When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
  7. Fine grain searches take the adventure away by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Back in the early days of the web, when Yahoo was still a catalog of links and not some super news/search/auction/ebusiness/do-it-all website that it is now, searches were much more fun.

    You really never knew what would turn up as you traversed the Yahoo directory structure. You start searching for blues music and you'd end up with a list of 15 or so good links with .wav samples and more than likely an artist you'd never heard of before. That was the best part, getting introduced to things you hadn't even thought to look for.

    As search techniques are becoming more refined, we are now able to do specific word searches on websites and now books. That's fine if you know exactly what you are looking for. For example if you want to get that book about 'replicants' you'll find Blade Runner, but you won't find anything else. You won't get any information except exactly the thing you are looking for.

    And I think that that is where the problem with this kind of search lies for books/music/etc. If you want to find a song or a book, it most likely isn't going to be a specific word you remember, it will be the tune or the plot, both of which are not searchable.

    I don't see this improvement in Amazon's search system as that much of an improvement. A better improvement could be made to the 'We thought you'd like' feature. Instead of finding only what I'm looking for, I'd like to find other things I might also be interested in.

    1. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by rokzy · · Score: 1

      all that "related links", "we thought you'd like", "here's what other people searched for" BS just gets in the way.

      It'd be okay so long as you could turn it off - search in "pure" mode or "I don't know what I want but I'll recognise it when I see it" mode.

    2. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by boris_the_hacker · · Score: 1

      This is a third hand story, but I am going to tell in anyway.

      There was a chap, at our University possibly, that started a PhD in Computer Science. The subject matter isn't that important, but the method with which he conducted he research was truly novel.

      One of the first things he did was goto the library and start by going at random to bookshelves and picking out a book. He would then flick to a random page and start reading. After a week he had amassed a set of random ideas for random subject areas, chose one and then based his work on converging what he had read and his area of interest (which I think was vision processing). The net result was a novel and very well received PhD and set of papers.

      Reading the parent comment reminded me of this story.

      I could have, and probably have, got it completely wrong but it does show the merits of accidental discovery of ideas and information.

      ctr. over and out.

      --
      chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
      http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
    3. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by TopShelf · · Score: 1

      Sounds like a modern version of "back in my day..."

      And if you haven't noticed, Amazon has been doing the "here's things you might be interested in" thing for a long, long time. If anything, that's the novel and useful technology for which they would deserve a patent.

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    4. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by Zardoz44 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Have you actually ever been to Amazon? What you say it lacks is what I like best about it.

      1. After a search, it gives you a list of "Customers who bought this also bought:". For instance, see this.

      2. They have the concept of "Listmania" which allows every user to create a list of their own recommended products. If your search aligns with their list, Amazon will suggest that you look at it. Search for something you want and keep an eye open for the listmania section.

      Doesn't this meet your criteria for "I'd like to find other thinks I might also be interested in.". And on top of that, I suppose the "browse" option is too complicated?

      This new feature of searching the full text only allows you to find related items in a different way. If you have a better idea on how to search their site that they don't provide, send them a suggestion. It is in their best interest to let you find things you want.

    5. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by vidnet · · Score: 1
      That's fine if you know exactly what you are looking for. For example if you want to get that book about 'replicants' you'll find Blade Runner, but you won't find anything else.

      Just like search parties come home from the woods with the missing person, instead of ten random other people who also look like great guys. Searching is done for specific things, browsing might be more what you're after.

      it most likely isn't going to be a specific word you remember, it will be the tune or the plot

      I've searched and found titles of songs countless times based on for example bits of the chorus. It obviously fails for classical music, but it's still not bad.

    6. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by Gyan · · Score: 1

      If you want to find a song or a book, it most likely isn't going to be a specific word you remember, it will be the tune or the plot, both of which are not searchable.

      As far as music goes, you can search for Parsons code.

    7. Re:Fine grain searches take the adventure away by Sivaram_Velauthapill · · Score: 1

      wow... that's an interesting story :) Quite ingenious I think...

      Sivaram Velauthapillai

      --
      Sivaram Velauthapillai
      Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places ;)
  8. Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember a teacher once telling a class I was in that our essays may be compared to other essays published online to check for plagiarism.

    Granted, Amazon.com's feature will only (for now) include 150,000 books, but this may very well be another way to catch plagiarizers. Just type in a suspicious phrase and see if there are any 'hits'.

    1. Re:Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by shri · · Score: 1

      But .. you're allowed to cite from books that you read in the library. The plagiarism services use far more complex algorithms to detect patterns. Atleast thats what they would like us to think.

    2. Re:Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      But for a citation, you quote it and specify a source. Not put it in your paper and claim it as your on writing.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    3. Re:Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by hamster+foo · · Score: 1

      Citing from books becomes plagiarism if you do not credit the source of the citation. In that case, this database could come in fairly handy for discovering said instances.

      --
      - b
    4. Re:Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by G4Outcast · · Score: 1

      They use Safari as the browser for their screenshots. I knew Apple was a good clean honest company that frowns upon plagiarism.

    5. Re:Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by clambake · · Score: 1

      I remember a teacher once telling a class I was in that our essays may be compared to other essays published online to check for plagiarism.

      Granted, Amazon.com's feature will only (for now) include 150,000 books, but this may very well be another way to catch plagiarizers. Just type in a suspicious phrase and see if there are any 'hits'.


      yeah, because no two people ever come up with the same turn of phrase for the same thing...

    6. Re:Potential tool for discovering plagiarism? by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "yeah, because no two people ever come up with the same turn of phrase for the same thing..."

      Don't have a cow, man.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  9. No Searching Inside O'Reilly Books by theodp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even though he said he was 'blown away' by Amazon's new Search Inside the Book feature, Tim O'Reilly has decided not to participate in the program for now. 'If they end up being a Google for published content...we need to think better about what publishers get out of it,' he said.

    1. Re:No Searching Inside O'Reilly Books by Zeddicus_Z · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As a Safari subscriber, I'd say it's probably because Full Text Search of online book content is also present at O'Reilly's own Safari online tech book site. You've been able to do the same thing Amazon is now crowing about, on every book Safari has, since launch quite some time ago (year or two perhaps?)

      Safari is more of a "service" (i.e. renting access to book content) than a "feature" of a retail website, which is all Amazon's "innovation" seems to be.

      Basically the only real different between the two (aside from what is cited above) is that Amazon just lets you know the content is mentioned, and shows you a page or two. Safari gives you the entire book. That and that Amazon has a much wider range of books in non-tech genres

      --
      Janie took my gun...
  10. Here's a quote relevant to the parent post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's books about everything:

    Encyclopedia of New Media : An Essential Reference to Communication and Technology -- Steve Jones (Editor); Hardcover

    Excerpt from page 0: ". . . post-ranking system used by members the of Web message board Slashdot.org, began as a result of community self- restraint in the face of unrelenting trolls (pointlessly hostile posters). In addition, some cyberspace forums now require . . ."

    See more references to slashdot troll in this book.

  11. In othr news by philipdl71 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The editors of the world reknowned Slashdot has recently proven to the wrld that they are unable to correct small spelling mistackes and grammar issues.

  12. No limits on pages viewed/searched? by JCallery · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I did a quick search using their demo for "Curse of the Bambino" in the 'Try Searches' area of the page linked to in the main /. story. After choosing the first book (Curse of the Bambino) I did another search just within that book (from the link on their page) for "Bambino." This turned up 129 of the 240 pages. Browsing through pages. Since you can display a couple of pages before and after the chosen page, it's easy to get to the rest of the pages in the book by just choosing a word on the page preceding/following the one displayed and doing another search for that word. I can't imagine this won't be abused...wonder how Amazon will deal with this. Perhaps a limit on each account for pages viewed per book/time period?

    1. Re:No limits on pages viewed/searched? by JCallery · · Score: 1

      I just realized while browsing more of the pages...in this example, each page of the book contains either the title of the book or the author's name at the top, so two searches will give you links to every page. (Sorry about the "Browsing through pages." fragment in prev post. I even previewed twice...must be time for bed.)

    2. Re:No limits on pages viewed/searched? by Moirke · · Score: 1

      What makes you think this would be abused anymore than simply being able to purchase the book and scan every page. I imagine it would atleast as easy to develop a scanner that automatically scanned every page of a book as it would to developed some bot to search for every page of the book.

    3. Re:No limits on pages viewed/searched? by dnahelix · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or you could save a great deal of time and GO TO A PUBLIC LIBRARY and CHECK IT OUT FOR FREE

      --
      Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
      They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
      I Hate \.
    4. Re:No limits on pages viewed/searched? by daveo0331 · · Score: 1

      For that matter, what's stopping me from going to Borders, getting the book, sitting down with a cup of coffee, and reading the whole thing without paying?

      It doesn't need to be impossible to read the book without paying for it. It just needs to be enough of a hassle that most people won't bother. If you have so much free time and so little money that you would actually consider reading a book by searching for the individual pages on Amazon, you're probably getting books by going to the library or borrowing from friends anyway.

      --
      Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
    5. Re:No limits on pages viewed/searched? by khoward1 · · Score: 2, Informative

      On a Metafilter discussion earlier today someone discovered that it maxes out at about 75 pages. They got this message:

      You've reached the page-view limit for this book or you've reached the monthly page-view limit for the Search Inside the Book feature. Feel free to return to the pages you've previously viewed. If you want to see more of this copyrighted material, you can purchase this book. You can also search inside other books. Click here for more information or continue shopping.

      So evidently they are keeping track and your quota resets every month. Interesting.

  13. no more staying awake! by rushibhai · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now I can cut+paste my homeworks! yay!

  14. Re:Those crazy Brits by zabieru · · Score: 1

    Here in America, a company is legally an entity, possessing most of the legal rights of a human being, and so is singular. I don't know that they are, in Britain. It makes sense if you think about the fact that Amazon is made up of many people, not just one. It's like saying 'The Who have finished their tour' rather than 'The Who has finished its tour.' Which makes more sense?

  15. No more out-of-print books by Bushcat · · Score: 3, Insightful
    As the digital index builds up, we will rapidly come across the situation where the electronic book is searchable, but the printed form is out of print. If this service ultimately allows single copies to be printed for delivery, it will be an outstanding demonstration of print-on-demand technology as advocated by the Print On Demand Initiative and others.

    I'd love to be able to browse a giant back catalog, knowing that an original or facsimile copy could definitely be delivered to me.

  16. One click search. by burtonator · · Score: 3, Funny

    In other news... Amazon announced that the USPTO has granted them a patent on their proprietary "one click search" technology.

    When questioned for comment Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "ug".

    1. Re:One click search. by dracocat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, funny. But, I would bet that there will be a patent on this. I would also bet it has already been applied for. I mean really, this is actually really inovative for them, there must be something patentable in this.

      Anyways, stay tuned, I believe the Patent Office takes about a year these days to issue a patent?

      The story will of course will run here on slashdot.

    2. Re:One click search. by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 1

      I mean really, this is actually really inovative for them, there must be something patentable in this.

      Welcome! You must be new to patenting.

    3. Re:One click search. by ajakk · · Score: 1
      Anyways, stay tuned, I believe the Patent Office takes about a year these days to issue a patent?

      Actually, make that closer to three years.

    4. Re:One click search. by dracocat · · Score: 1

      O.K. Well, even if nobody else did, I thought that was funny.

  17. New age youth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Youth in the old days: lookup 'vagina' in a dictionary.
    Youth nowadays: lookup 'vagina' in all books on this planet.

  18. Wow! by plasticmillion · · Score: 4, Informative
    I'm impressed. A couple of days I want onto Amazon to find books about Singular Value Decompositions (a mathematical technique that can be used for efficient statistical analysis of large groups of documents, among other things). I wasn't particularly surprised when it returned 0 results, since anyone who puts the term "Singular Value Decomposition" in their book's title obviously doesn't know much about marketing. Of course I don't actually give a damn if the term is in the title or not; I just want to know if the books talks about this technique.

    I tried the search again today and got nearly 5,000 results, with the capability to actually look inside the book and see if the reference is useful to me. Very impressive indeed, patent or no patent.

    1. Re:Wow! by real+bio · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Google has a prior art for this, and maybe they have the patent too:

      Google Catalogs

      --

      ---
      Support Mozilla. Buy the CD.
  19. But Will They Make Them Available a eBooks? by klausner · · Score: 1

    Now that they have this huge library scanned in, will they make it available for anything _but_ searches?

    1. Re:But Will They Make Them Available a eBooks? by Enoch+Root · · Score: 1

      Just browse through Amazon, you'll see they have a lot of ebooks already available. They're a tad more expensive than Fictionwise or EBooks.com, and I wish you had access to the book indefinitely instead of only 30 days, but they're still doing a lot of good to the ebook world.

      As a matter of fact, when I considered buying a PDA because it was just too damn expensive for me to order real books to Shanghai, the availability of ebooks on Amazon convinced me it was the right thing to do.

  20. My question is... by switched4OSX · · Score: 1

    How long before they patent this "never before seen" technology?

  21. Various worthwhile uses by emcron · · Score: 5, Informative


    Bash Amazon all you want, but this is a very useful technology.

    In five minutes I was able to find three books that talked about findings first listed in two of my own published scientific papers, yet these books did not cite me, or anyone else, as the source of that information. My lawyer is currently preparing three letters.

    I also found two other books in which the author used verbatim quotes and original theories from various interviews I have given, yet both authors passed off the statements as their own. My lawyer is now preparing five letters.

    Aside from being used to protect my own research rights, I have found the search system useful for finding topics of interest discussed in certain books which are not referenced in any of the descriptions about the books. I just ordered three books I would not otherwise have ever purchased.

    While I don't think highly of all of Amazon's practices, I must hand it to them for whatever technical undertaking created this search feature.

    1. Re:Various worthwhile uses by The+Limp+Devil · · Score: 1

      Good post. I think in general that this search is at its most useful in non-fiction, to see content not mentioned explicitly in the title, headings, or in the publisher's write up.

  22. Already been done by feste12 · · Score: 1

    Amazon's got a nice idea, but it has already been implemented for Stephen King books at http://www.stephenkingsearch.com. How long until Amazon forces this guy to close down?

    1. Re:Already been done by Travoltus · · Score: 1

      They wouldn't dare try.
      I don't think they'd want the Tommyknockers or the Langoliers at their doorstep :)

      --
      --- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
  23. Just tried it.... by L-s-L69 · · Score: 1

    Ive tried searching for the following.
    1. Rincewind (Character in Terry Pratchett books)
    The only reference I could find where books about fantasy/sci fi fiction and no book extracts from TP's books.
    2. Various other British and US authors, again to extracts.
    3. The first line of 1984. Success I found extracts, but only the first page and the cover. Also the extract seemed only to exist for one version of the book, not all copies.

    This seems to be a good idea for academia/study books but, at the moment at least doesnt seem to work as well for fiction. Im guessing this is because of lack of participation by the publishers.

    1. Re:Just tried it.... by EricWright · · Score: 1

      Funny you chose the first line of 1984... that was the very first search I did there! The second was to look for the phrase 'color of a television, tuned to a dead channel', which is part of the first sentence of Gibson's Neuromancer. No luck. Of course, search for Neuromancer, and you're taken right to it.

      I think you're spot on with the observation that there is a lack of participation by fiction authors.

    2. Re:Just tried it.... by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      You sound like someone who's just bought an expensive new car, and is complaining that it doesn't clean their carpets very well.

      Surely the whole purpose of this is to find a book which discusses some particular subject? That's not USEFUL for fiction. Try it with, I don't know, the names of authors, rather than their characters, and you'll probably get some more useful results from critical works about those authors. Try it with the names of scientific processes, perhaps. Try it on algorithms. And if you want to find quotations, try a dictionary of quotations. Horses for courses, and all that.

  24. Fuck Patents. by shadowxtc · · Score: 1

    Come on. You all must agree by now...

  25. Not impressed by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 1

    I tried searching for an exact phrase but it doesn't work - you just get lots of matches on the individual words. It is also very broken if you use quotation marks.

    --
    When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    1. Re:Not impressed by rtorlas · · Score: 1

      I agree with this. I have been looking for a book that I read back in 76 of which I have long since forgotten the title. I did a search on "how many eggs does a pancake make" (with the quotes) and it didn't find anything. Without the quotes, the search resulted in 8522 hits; most of which were cook books. BTW, the book, as I recall, was about a bunch of teenagers bumming around Europe and the above quote was from one of many weird blurbs the author dropped in.

  26. ebooks vs CD/DVD by Enoch+Root · · Score: 2

    I warmly welcome any initiative that makes more and more books, or parts thereof, available online.

    I used to think, like many people, that ebooks just didn't work because 'I like the feel of paper under my fingers'. Since I bought a PDA and discovered the joys of Fictionwise, I just can't go back to these clumsy wood pulp apparels.

    Amazon is pretty progressive in this regard, making a great number of their collection available electronically. It was probably fairly easy from there to make their stock searchable. And how I wish the MPAA and RIAA could work like the publishing industry...

    The existence of ebooks is NOT threatening traditional books, because people see more value in a printed book over an electronic copy. This is clearly not the case with a CD and a DVD, since most people couldn't care less about the jacket if they have the goods on the CD/DVD. I wish the MPAA and RIAA would understand how to make traditional CDs and DVDs "value-added", and make people less inclined to getting a computer file instead of shelling out the money.

    Then again, I guess the case with ebooks is that your typical DVD or CD pirate is just not interested in swapping files to get the latest Stephen King and read it on screen. Not only that, but most of History's greatest books are available for free, and one could probably read free books for the rest of their lives if they chose so.

    1. Re:ebooks vs CD/DVD by Knetzar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some people would say that "most of History's greatest" music is also available for free. I for one prefer modern music over Bach, but the classics are free.

    2. Re:ebooks vs CD/DVD by neglige · · Score: 1

      I used to think, like many people, that ebooks just didn't work

      Yes, same here. But that was until I actually used an e-book :) Granted, e-books are not perfect for all situations, and there are times when a printed version is better. I prefer print version when I have to mark the text and reuse it (citing etc.), since I find it easier to skim through the printed pages than to look things up in the PDF reader.

      And how I wish the MPAA and RIAA could work like the publishing industry.

      Well, seeing how reluctant publishers are in creating e-books of printed version, I'm not quite sure ;) And, unfortunately, publisher often choose to charge the same price for an e-book and the printed version, although electronic publishing should be cheaper.

      The existence of ebooks is NOT threatening traditional books

      I'd say it depends. I agree that someone who prefers e- or p-books, will always buy his preferred version. But e-books are very interesting for educational purposes: buy one e-book (maybe a "campus license" or something like that, which costs a bit more) and let students access it for free. For how long they want. This would losen the bottleneck the current lending system introduces, but print version would be unnecessary (I'd say that libraries would still buy one print version, tho).

      --
      My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
    3. Re:ebooks vs CD/DVD by Enoch+Root · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The music itself is free, but quality recordings on MP3s are still being sold only as CDs, and are NOT available online for free. Thus, if I want to find quality classical music, I need to find a good recording, and that implies either piracy or buying a CD.

      Whereas if I want H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, I am one click away from a quality MS Reader version of it.

  27. Legal Implications? by wo1verin3 · · Score: 1

    Since Amazon doesn't own the rights to the book, is there any legal liability if someone determined enough writes a script to steal an entire book?

    If you are a registered, recognized Amazon.com customer, you will go directly to the page you selected ........ and that you can browse forward and back two pages.

    Since you can see two pages ahead and back of your search result, you can simply take the contents of the second page and place a new search based on the contents of 2 pages forward from your current location. Might take a bit of work, but if the full book is really there it is possible to automate the process.

  28. more patents? by Catcher80 · · Score: 1

    If this got patented, I imagine it would put a lot of companies (google) out of business or something. I mean, patenting a search of a specific word or phrase in a document? You've got to be kidding me?

    I'm not even sure they could patent the part about "searching through it before you make a purchase". I think some newspaper websites let you search through an article for a specific word and then shows you that part of the article, but if you want to read the whole thing you have to make an account or buy the paper.

    I guess I don't understand patents. How can you patent something that every program that deals with text uses, and has used since the beginning, and will keep using? ;/

    --
    I sell out to The Man every day.
  29. already been done by Catcher80 · · Score: 1

    believe it or not!

    1.) go to walmart
    2.) thumb in the book
    3.) look over your shoulder every 30 seconds, we don't want to get caught!
    4.) ...
    5.) YOU GENIUS!

    --
    I sell out to The Man every day.
  30. You can see whole pages by AlecC · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can read the page it is on and +/- two pages.

    This is equivalent of the facility you have in a physical bookstore to open a book and browse a few pages before purchasing. I can see it might be very useful, if they get the majority of books in a field accessible like this.

    I wanted a PHP book the other day, and it is very difficult to decidew which one of the plethora available I wanted. So I went to my physoical bookstore. Smaller choice, but I could open each and get an impression of whther ther were slow, detail by detail, dummies books or the sort of high-speed summary I wanted.

    --
    Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
    1. Re:You can see whole pages by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 1
      "This is equivalent of the facility you have in a physical bookstore to open a book and browse a few pages before purchasing."

      The difference being that you can't write a computer program to go to the bookstore and systematically find the contents of certain books for you while you sleep. You can't root a bunch of windows boxes and have those zombies doing the whole thing to a physical store's collection.

      I'm not saying that amazon's book text search feature is bad. I'm just saying it is different from and has different implications than the ability to walk into a bookstore and browse through a book.

  31. Why do I need to enter a credit card number? by waimate · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From the FAQ:
    Why do I need to enter a credit card number?

    We require credit card information for security purposes only. We will not charge your credit card account any fees for using the Search Inside the Book feature.

    Uhuh. Security. Whose?

    Yeah, I want to be financially secure too !

    1. Re:Why do I need to enter a credit card number? by Zocalo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Obviously Amazon is aware of all of the "Mickey Mouse" and "Slashdot" type accounts that the New York Times garners. I would assume that Amazon's intent is that by requesting some information that you would not be prepared to share with others they can avoid this, and thus prevent some abuse. Let's face it, Amazon isn't some dodgy peddler of porn and pills that trades from a different URL each week, plus if you have got an account, it was probably to order something, which means they already *have* your credit card number.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    2. Re:Why do I need to enter a credit card number? by CargoCultCoder · · Score: 1
      We will not charge your credit card account any fees for using the Search Inside the Book feature.
      oh yeah, we forgot the "yet" part..

      So, now we're going to direct our annoyance not only at those who do charge us for providing us services, but also those who may charge us. Yeah, that makes lots of sense.

    3. Re:Why do I need to enter a credit card number? by WaKall · · Score: 1

      Scripting/Automating creation of new accounts: easy
      Creating new, unique credit cards associated with those accounts: hard

      Seems like a mechanism for keeping any one entity from being able to view all pages from a single book.

  32. Re:Amazon have? by AlecC · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't think there is in the generall case a correct answer to whether collectives should be singular or plural - it depends upon the context.

    "Congress have failed to agreee..." because you are talking about a lod of swuablling politicians who are definitely plural.

    "Congress has past a bill..." because those politicians have managed to achiueve a consensus and act as as a single entity.

    In this case the sungular is correct, because Amnazon as an entity is offering a new service. But you could use the term collectively for all employees of Amazon.

    --
    Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
  33. Anyone else notice this? by mike_lynn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You have to have an account to view the pages. Fine, great. But then it brought up this screen:

    By publishers' agreement, we are pleased to offer Amazon.com customers with a valid credit card the ability to view copyrighted pages.
    Your account will not be charged.
    This one-time process enables you to view limited copyrighted material through our Search Inside the Book feature.


    So they'll let you browse the search pages, if you can prove your identity on record and provide them with financial information. No thanks.

    1. Re:Anyone else notice this? by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It sounds more like they want to limit it to paying customers, and give non-customers at least one hoop through which to jump. If you've ordered even once with Amazon, you're set. If everyone in the world could do the text search without any requirement, their servers would melt down. In fact, I doubt they really expect many to provide a CC just to do a search. It seems more like an expanded feature for previous customers.

      I plan to check it out for engineering texts, but I suspect my local (relative to Amazon, that is) technical bookstore has nothing to fear.

      --
      --- Ban humanity.
  34. Heh by mongbot · · Score: 1

    With that many typos in one post, I sure hope your grammar is better than your spelling.

    1. Re:Heh by AlecC · · Score: 1

      See my sig. If my compiler can have a syntac checker, whey can't /.?

      --
      Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
  35. How are they indexing and scanning all the books? by eMartin · · Score: 1

    I was always under the impression that Amazon was so successful because most of the business is handled by the computers unning the site and sales, and they only needed people to work in their warehouses, on their website/software, and some to handle customer support (as opposed to maintaining a chain of retail stores around the world).

    But now, this seems to be something that would require an army of people to handle. And that's not to mention the hardware/facilities needed to create this database.

    So how is this actually being managed?

  36. Why did Amazon take this route? by ramas · · Score: 2, Informative

    As I read this rather interesting post, I am trying to figure out why Amazon took this route rather than the many many routes available to them to publicise or provide a richer experience to the average Joe buyer...

    Even with a full text search facility I doubt very much if it can come close to matching the experience of flipping through a book at the local book store no matter how effective the searching facility.

    I can think of one reason and that has already been mentioned by a few /.ers here i.e., the ability to help researchers to find out obscure stuff that wont find its way even into the google scheme of things but that is not a huge majority so I am left wondering.

    --
    - ramas opines !!
    1. Re:Why did Amazon take this route? by Alric · · Score: 1

      I can't recite the numbers, but I know that far more non-fiction books are published each year. This new searching technique is wonderful for spot-checking specifics topics that you need a book to cover. I think it's a wonderful service that has already affected my purchases.

  37. From their FAQ... by eMartin · · Score: 1

    "Why won't Search Inside the Book let me see more pages from a specific book?

    Our Search Inside the Book feature is designed to help our customers discover new books and ensure that they'll be satisfied with their purchases. To be fair to the publishers and authors who participate in our program, we only allow Search Inside the Book users to read a portion of the book."

  38. Yeah but... by Ogger · · Score: 1

    ... can you save it? Is there some workaround/hack so that you can actualy save that page. Ofcoursse, good 'ol "Printscn" will do it, but you have to go thru hassle of pasting it in photoshop, croping..bla bla bla

  39. Did anyone notice the number of books? by alphakappa · · Score: 1

    The blurb says that they have 120,000 books that can be searched by text. This means that they have digitized all of them - and that is 110,000 more books than what Project Gutenberg has managed to achieve. Pretty impressive work in such a short duration of time - since each book has an electronic entry, plus a scanned page for display!

    --
    "When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
  40. 120,000 books =33 million pages.We can do better! by SPYDER+Web · · Score: 1

    Come on how about every book ever made in every language just like in the QWEST Commerical! When can I ride the light?!?!?

    --
    Trix are for kids!
  41. Scanner problems by thrill12 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Neat idea, but some excerpts come out all wrong:
    See this for example...
    Mass-OCR'ing has it's drawbacks..

    --
    Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
    1. Re:Scanner problems by thrill12 · · Score: 1

      Looking at the book again, perhaps the OCR technology is not the problem, but the paper on which the book was printed (paperback).
      So at least you can use this as a quick way to filter out books that were printed on bad paper, books with bad lettertype etc...

      --
      Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
  42. Re:How are they indexing and scanning all the book by Bitsy+Boffin · · Score: 1

    I'd imagine it's a simple matter of...

    Amazon : Hey Mr Publisher, I'm setting up this database of book texts so the mort..err.customers can search for books.
    Publisher : Cool, I'll email the [postscript/tex/...other source] right over.

    Every one of those books has to have a electronic version somewhere, most likely in a machine-readable (rather than vector/bitmap) format.

    --
    NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
  43. This technology is called. . . by kfg · · Score: 2, Informative

    "grep."

    I believe there is a body of prior art for scanning in books and greping them. Is that not one of the oft repeated benefits of ebooks?

    Whether or not Amazon can get a patent on a shell script to serve up the results . . . on the web oooooooo, remains to be seen I suppose.

    They managed to get one on "Give me one of those, put it on my account and drop it by my house" a "technology" my grocer has been offering over the phone for 40 years that I'm personally aware of.

    However, since this sort of "technology" is exactly the sort of thing that the web, and the internet itself for that matter, was invented for I'd have to guess there's a lot of prior art. It's certainly obvious and trivial, but that doesn't seem to count for much these days.

    The problem with things that are so obvious and trivial that "everyone" has been doing it for decades is that it's hard to demonstrate in court because no one bothers to document it.

    Can you prove your grandfather put his pants on one leg at a time?

    Common sense tells you he did, but common sense no longer applies in an age that grants patents to perpetual motion machines and peanut butter sandwiches.

    KFG

    1. Re:This technology is called. . . by Avumede · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, it is not grep, any more than Google is grep. Grep does not scale. It's a search index.

  44. Re:Those crazy Brits by tiled_rainbows · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but what about the Police (the law-enforcement guys, not the band). In England, anyway, it's always "the Police are..." I don't know why, but it is.

  45. Re:Worthwhile uses: Finding defendants? by emcron · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Umm, maybe you missed the point. It allows me to find others who are stealing from *me*

    When you pass off somone else's ideas as those of your own it's called plagiarism.

    I'm not suing them for any monetary damages. Just a requirement that my own work be attributed to me.

  46. Prior art on any patent by AuMatar · · Score: 1

    Searching a single book- an index

    Searching multiple books- a card catalog

    Not to mention a dozen or so library cataloging systems, at least- especially research quality ones. That being said, this sounds like an awesome feature, and I applaud Amazon for putting it together.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  47. SERIOUSLY IMPRESSSED by essreenim · · Score: 1

    Really, though if they make it fast and reliable - its an excellent excellent idea. I'm sick of buying books that seem to have the right subject matter only to find that at a deeper level - they are just not what I'm looking for. Go Amazon!!

  48. Re:Those crazy Brits by AllanLembo · · Score: 1

    No, you would say "That group are going to the shop."

  49. Re:Worthwhile uses: Finding defendants? by emcron · · Score: 1

    I certainly don't support the RIAA's tactics. But I do not support downloading copyrighted music that you have note paid for.

    I am a firm believer in fair use and hate all the DRM crap floating around.

    The case with the books is not fair use. So I answer your questions only to satisfy whatever curiosity you may have. In these books people are not only stealing words from my mouth and passing them off as their own (the theories in question are undoubtedly mine), but selling them to boot!

    My comments were in no way meant to take a stand one way or another with regards to copyright law. But if you were a software developer and found someone selling books with your proprietary algorithms as their own you'd probably take action too.

  50. Two click search. by blitz487 · · Score: 1

    I'm going to patent the two click search and the three click search!

    1. Re:Two click search. by Sivaram_Velauthapill · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah? Well, I'm going to patent the 4-click, 5-click, 6-click, and BEST OF ALL the n-click (where n>3) system.

      Sivaram Velauthapillai

      --
      Sivaram Velauthapillai
      Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places ;)
  51. Patent by schnitzi · · Score: 1
    I wonder if a patent is in the works." Or if a patent is already owned.


    Like that would stop them from trying to patent it again.
    --



    I object to that article, and to the next reply.
  52. Search Dictionary? by Bobman1235 · · Score: 1

    Or maybe a first grade spelling book, which says that the third-person verb conjugation of "launch" is spelled "launches", not "launchs."

    I mean, c'mon, it's the first thing I noticed when I fired up slashdot this morning. Have people just stopped paying attention to spelling around here?

  53. Wired article: "The Great Library of Amazonia" by Enigmia+Man · · Score: 5, Informative

    Article in December Wired talks about Amazon's book scanning, how they legally do it, who does it, how many books so far, and protections.

  54. Indexing mechanism by hankwang · · Score: 1
    >I'm pretty sure their book collection is well indexed, if they're offering this service. Probably with the google engine, too.

    The Google engine relies upon the fact that web pages tend to link to each other. Most books don't (except maybe scientific publications), so the Google engine doesn't make much sense here.

    1. Re:Indexing mechanism by KDan · · Score: 1

      The google search engine is a bit more generic than that. It's a search engine with a PageRank mechanism. One of the bits of the Pagerank mechanism is what you've just described. Then there's a whole lot of other stuff on top of that. Adapting the "PageRank" to be a "BookRank" instead (based on the popularity of the book in its subject domain?) is not much of a stretch.

      Daniel

      --
      Carpe Diem
    2. Re:Indexing mechanism by real+bio · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes, but searching pages scanned/OCR'ed and highlighting the keywords has been a feature of Google search for a long time:

      Google Catalogs (Beta)

      It's very probable that they licensed the Catalog Search technology from Google.

      --

      ---
      Support Mozilla. Buy the CD.
  55. Re:What if... by Robmonster · · Score: 1

    Thats an interesting point.

    Say for example you enjoyed an authors book that featured a particular character, and wanted to find other books that also featured that character.

    Run a search on the characters name and one of the results comes back saying something about that characters tragic death, or something else that gives away the plot of the book.

    I hate it when book endings get spoilt and this would really annoy me.

    --
    I have no sig yet I must scream.
  56. Re:Worthwhile uses: Finding defendants? by Robmonster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I dont see anything wrong with what the poster is doing. He used Amazons system to identify books whereby his/her work was not correctly attributed.

    How is this an Abuse of the legal system???

    --
    I have no sig yet I must scream.
  57. Amazon 'partner' link URL in this story by Bob+Cat+-+NYMPHS · · Score: 1

    Is someone getting $$$ for driving /. traffic to Amazon?

  58. safari.informit.com already does this...for a fee by fogez · · Score: 1

    Safari.informit.com already has a book search tool that allows you to search their database of a couple thousand tech books. You can search for free, but a subscription is required to read the full text...

  59. Re:Those crazy Brits by mashx · · Score: 1

    Think of Police as a short form of 'those wonderful men and women of the police Constabulary'. Does that help?

    --

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
  60. whats the point you're making in the first place? by CowBovNeal · · Score: 2, Insightful
    When you have such a vast array of information at your fingertips, there is a potential for mischief.
    You could have robots trolling this section all day.
    Uhuh. Security. Whose?

    What's your point? You think Amazon is a dishonest porn site that takes your credit card information and disappears the next day?
    If that's your mentality, how are you surfing the web?

    Yeah, I want to be financially secure too !

    What the fsck's your point man? What does amazon demanding your credit card number for security have to do with you "wanting to be financially secure"? How did you even get modded up in the first place?

    A few million people shop through amazon. You think unauthorized purchases and fradulent credit card transactions show up every month on their statements?

    Jeez, get a life dude.
    --
    Bush is on fire and its not good for my lungs.
  61. Now we just need... by s88 · · Score: 4, Funny

    A full text search of slashdot, so the editors can search for duplicate articles before they post.

    Scott

  62. Biased? by nimrod_me · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Since this feature is not available for all books (and, in fact, wasn't available for any book in my wishlist) the results are necessarily very biased.

    Thus, your searches will tend to return more results from books that are fully indexed.

    Now that I think about it - this is a major incentive for publishers to get their books indexed.

  63. I patented... by davidylin · · Score: 1

    the method of putting a sheep and a cow within 100 feet of another for good sheep-cow proximity. Are you infringing on my invention?

  64. How do we know _which_ books... by dpbsmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...are included in the search?

    A check on "the clocks were striking thirteen" yields seventeen hits, including the Cliff's Notes to Nineteen Eighty-Four and a reference in the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations...

    but none to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four itself.

    We must conclude that the coverage is spotty.

    1. Re:How do we know _which_ books... by dpbsmith · · Score: 1
      Thank you, thank you... And now, for my next act, I will correctly spell the names of
      • Nietzsche,
      • Gandhi,
      • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
      • and even Charles M. Schulz.
  65. Has it occurred to you... by nniillss · · Score: 2, Interesting
    In five minutes I was able to find three books that talked about findings first listed in two of my own published scientific papers, yet these books did not cite me, or anyone else, as the source of that information. My lawyer is currently preparing three letters.
    ...that not everybody reads your papers? You should definitely contact the authors first. They might have had the same ideas by themselves.
  66. Re:Those crazy Brits by tiled_rainbows · · Score: 1

    Well, not really, because the definition you give in kind of recursive. What do you call the organisation to which these wonderful men and women belong? And is it a singular or a plural?

    My take on it is that generally, yeah, organisations, groups, etc shoulds be treated as singular nouns, and those who don't are woefully ignorant and fair game to be laughed at by those of us who know better, but that "The Police" is an illogical exception.

    It's English, it doen't have to obey logical rules.

  67. Re:Worthwhile uses: Finding defendants? by adrianbye · · Score: 1

    You can't require them to attribute you. If they quoted a portion of your work, its fair use. If they quoted a lot of it verbatim, its copyright infringement.

    But they are legally allowed to take your ideas and use them however they want, unless you have a patent.

  68. Why..This would be like searching through the LOC! by op00to · · Score: 3, Funny

    What a feat of computing genius! Using computers to search through large bodies of text!!!! Has ANYONE ever done this before?!

  69. Free Books? by Angram · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you can read 5 pages of text per search, couldn't you just continually search for a phrase on the 5th page, allowing you to read any book for free with a decent amount of effort?

    --

    GL
    1. Re:Free Books? by cableshaft · · Score: 1

      Perhaps, but that's not much different than going to Barnes and Noble, or even a library, every day for six or so hours and reading a book off the shelf cover to cover. By making it require you to search every few pages, it makes it enough of an effort that most people wouldn't bother (although some would certainly abuse it to no end, that's probably why they require credit card numbers).

      --
      Creator of the popular web game Proximity
    2. Re:Free Books? by br0ck · · Score: 1

      The previously noted and much more informative Wired article explains how this is prevented:

      The archive is intentionally crippled. A search brings back not text, but pictures -- pictures of pages. You can find the page that responds to your query, read it on your screen, and browse a few pages backward and forward. But you cannot download, copy, or read the book from beginning to end. There is no way to link directly to any page of a book. If you want to read an extensive excerpt, you must turn to the physical volume -- which, of course, you can conveniently purchase from Amazon. Users will be asked to give their credit card number before looking at pages in the archive, and they won't be able to view more than a few thousand pages per month, or more than 20 percent of any single book.

    3. Re:Free Books? by jll · · Score: 1
      If you can read 5 pages of text per search, couldn't you just continually search for a phrase on the 5th page, allowing you to read any book for free with a decent amount of effort?
      Even better, it returns all pages containing a certain word or phrase, so that if it's very common you basically get the whole book returned by your search.

      I used this gimmick yesterday to read "Lord of the Rings" by searching on 'Frodo'. Was really glad to finally read the book, but kinnda pissed off that that hack Peter Jackson tampered with it so much in "Two Towers" by inserting that stupid, made-up battle into it.

  70. Re:Those crazy Brits by mashx · · Score: 1
    Well, not really, because the definition you give in kind of recursive. What do you call the organisation to which these wonderful men and women belong? And is it a singular or a plural?

    Well, The Police Force of course. It's different! Honest guv.

    I like to point and giggle at the woefully ignorant as much as the next upstanding citizen, I suppose I treat using singular and plural in this case as interchangeable as the language has mutated over time. Mutated or evolved? Whatever, you're right, it doesn't have hard and fast rules, and me being English ain't either. :o)

    --

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
  71. OCR Quirks by frx · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, there seem to be few or no post-OCR filters. Search for "vesterday" for example, and look at the excerpts. Also, some of these books have handwritten pages that went through OCR like the rest.
    Look for the "Ducky" result of the "vesterday" search and check the page 14. The excerpt is basically garbled OCR results.
    So, what's the idea for the QA plan ?

    --
    --f
  72. Unfair Use? Amazon's Free Book Giveaway Service by nettle · · Score: 2, Informative
    I blogged this yesterday. I found that it's relatively easy to copy entire books (time-consuming, but easy), using this new service.

    Read all about it here: http://www.nettle.com/archives/000062.html

  73. Patent Bashing Du Jour by saddino · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or if a patent is already owned.

    This type of editorializing is pathetic in that its only purpose is to stir up the masses. Gee...now let's take a look shall we? 20% of the comments are "patents suck" or "isn't this some example prior art"?

    This story is about a new feature people...it's not about a patent. Wipe the froth from your mouths and comment on the merits (of lack of) the feature...not on a completely fabricated hypothetical comment meant to incite you into a frenzy.

  74. super index by pensano · · Score: 1

    In case anyone else hasn't mentioned it, this service also provides a way to find the pages containing text in books one already owns. The only drawback is that I wouldn't consider it anywhere near 90% accurate, since a lot of their OCR appears to result in gibberish.

  75. Useful, yes. Technically impressive/patentable, no by dwheeler · · Score: 1
    This does sound like a useful service. Hooray!

    But technically this isn't impressive. I worked on programs that did full-text document searches about 20 years ago, and they weren't new then. So simply doing full-text searches in documents is just no big deal. But what about the large number of books, you say? Actually, that's nothing more than what they already do. I believe the scale of website text far exceeds the scale of the book text that they can search. The Wikipedia is simply one of millions of sites, and it has a whole encyclopedia. So, they can simply use their existing schemes that examine websites to examine books as well. I am impressed with Google's ability to manage web searches, but compared to that, book searching is no big deal. It's a very minor extension to what they already do.

    Is it patentable? They can probably send in paperwork and get a piece of paper, since the wheel and patterns for swinging on a swing have already been granted patents. Patenting in many countries has become simply a registration process, even though the law says otherwise. Software patents are particularly egregious. But does this basic idea meet the legal requirements of a patent? No. The idea of searching the full text of books - and technology to do it - has been around for decades. If they've done something truly original to handle the scale, then maybe, but as of yet I don't see any evidence of that. Perhaps the evidence of something original and not obvious will come.

    I like to hear about major new innovations - I even have a paper on software innovations. But not everything has to be a breathtaking new innovation to be useful. If it's useful, then let's say "thank you" and/or use it, without demanding that it represent a revolutionary change in technology. Some of the things that have most changed our lives aren't radical new ideas, but instead are things that made pre-existing ideas easier or cheaper to use.

    --
    - David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
  76. Not As Useful As I'd Like by ThePhin · · Score: 1

    I decided to search for a single sentence in a book, chosen thusly:

    1. Go to All Consuming, a website that tracks book commentary on weblogs.
    2. Grab their 'First Line Trivia' for the day, which is a quote of the first line from some book featured on a weblog that day. Today's example was "The Professor sat behind his desk, dwarfed by his vast red leather armchair."
    3. Plug the line into Amazon's search field

    The correct answer is "Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love" by Dan Rhodes. Did Amazon match it? I don't know, as I didn't have the patience to page through the 963 'matches'.

    Note: I didn't actually expect this to work, but it would have been cool!

  77. A Tale of Two Cities by crimefighter · · Score: 1

    I searched for "It was the best of times", and got back these results in the top 10.

    1. The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children (New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children)
    2. The Best Of Times
    3. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
    4. The Best Time Travel Stories of All Time
    5. How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time
    6. What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time
    7. The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years
    8. The New York Times Guide to the Best 1000
    9. Time Machines: The Best Time Travel Stories Ever Written
    10. 100 Best Poems of All Time

    Poor Mr. Dickens.

  78. Available for Googling? by bkhl · · Score: 1

    It would be nice if some sort of interface to this could be included in Google.

    Since Amazon.com has some sort of API for external applications, it shouldn't be impossible.

  79. Re:MOD PARENT TROLL by Robmonster · · Score: 1

    Eiher that or an idealistic hippy, but I dont think there is a Mod category for that.... ;)

    --
    I have no sig yet I must scream.
  80. Result Overload by Arianrhod · · Score: 1

    I would be a big fan of this idea - if you could choose when you wanted to use the feature, and when you wanted to search the "old way". I clearly see how this could be extremely useful when looking for obscure and/or highly specialized topics. But for anything more general, or that simply gets mentioned in passing often, this can create huge numbers of results that actually aren't that great of matches...

    --
    "What we play is life." - Louis Armstrong
  81. A4 pages? by tallniel · · Score: 1
    "Some web sites have 100's of A4 pages,..."

    The web is made from paper?

    1. Re:A4 pages? by KDan · · Score: 1

      Yes, and your brain is made from rigid metallic struts.

      Daniel

      --
      Carpe Diem
  82. Re:Those crazy Brits by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well at least they don't refer to a liquid as 'gas' like the Americans do when talking about petrol.

    --
    Drill baby drill - on Mars
  83. Re:abuse - I've abused it. Sort of. by dnquark137 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was stuck when working on a problem set; I Googled for a while and found out that there's a bunch of helpful info in one particular problems and solutions book. Curious about the book, I went on Amazon, and lo and behold, I can actually read the book. So, I look at the table of contents, find the relevant section, and search for the heading of that section. I can now read two pages from it. Not a problem; just pick a phrase on the second page and use it as a search query. Lather, rinse, repeat.

    That, of course, would be impractical to do for more than ~4 pages (which was what I needed), but you get the point.

    In a couple of hours I joined a few other guys working on the set, and it turned out they had just bought the book. There was a big "Doh!" when I showed them my printouts.

    Now, if I actually found the book genuinely useful as a result of this experience, I'd buy a hardcopy. But I for now I think I'll stick with the current method. And I suspect many people might do just that: oftentimes there are references that aren't crucial to have, but convenient to turn to on a few occasions. The book search feature is perfect for those.

  84. Re:FAIR USE?? by RickL · · Score: 1

    The rights holder has to sign up to be included. If you don't want to participate, you don't have to. The theory they are pushing is that it will increase sales of your book. It is still too early to tell if it will work.

    See: Search Inside the Book for Publishers

  85. SERIOUSLY IMPRESSSED by a dictionary attack by Mod+Me+God · · Score: 1

    Would it be possible to dictionary attack a book, parse the words and come up with a plain text version of the book?

    That would be very seriously impressive!

    --
    --

    FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
    1. Re:SERIOUSLY IMPRESSSED by a dictionary attack by essreenim · · Score: 1

      I know this post is ancient...

      But yeah, I was thinking along those lines too.
      It must be possible. I wonder if Amazon will ending up getting sued to the point of being
      "Napster like". There is already a Danish distributed client system to share premium news!!

  86. Isn't this illegal? by Solandri · · Score: 1

    I thought it was illegal to obtain someone's credit card number if you don't intend to charge it.

    1. Re:Isn't this illegal? by blindio23 · · Score: 1

      If that were true it would be illegal for enterprise/alamo/rentawreck to accept cash payment but still expect a credit card to secure a deposit.

  87. Re:How are they indexing and scanning all the book by eMartin · · Score: 1

    There is a submission form on their site for publishers to use that says all they require is a physical copy of the book.

  88. Already available from another service by hoochiepapa · · Score: 1

    http://www.books24x7.com offers content search not a free service but a load of technical books. Luckily, work pays for my subscription

  89. Re:whats the point you're making in the first plac by waimate · · Score: 1

    I'll continue this conversation if you provide me with your credit card number. This conversation is a free service, and I will not charge your credit card. Your credit card number is just required for security purposes.

    Do you really believe that large companies do no wrong, and make no mistakes? Are you really such a bunny that you give your credit card to anyone with a brand name who asks for it?

    That's my point, "man". Wake up to the real world. Look around you. Observe corporate malfeance. Now wonder if you really want to give your credit card number out every time you're asked. It's not a matter of paranoia. It's a matter of not being a schmuck.

  90. searched on: shit eating freaks - Results: by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 1
    I searched on "shit eating freaks" and got 6657 pages of hits. Rather than list the books (look it up yourself!), I'll give you the texts it found from the first page. It makes for very amusing non-sequitor reading. Aaaah - a new form of entertainment! Abusing the amazon search engine!

    Excerpt from page 47: ". . . say, just loud enough for us to hear it, "Fuckin' freaks." Phoebe gives them a big shit-eating smile and blows them a huge kiss. They look away, . . ."

    Excerpt from page 97: ". . . stop" is counterproductive. The victim already feels like a "walking freak" and further blame- inducing language . . . of the severity of an eating disorder. If you suspect a loved one has an eating . . ." Excerpt from page 127: ". . . Big D are explaining the law to Floyd. BIG D Shit, any nigger say he don't . . . by the dominant white, pussy- eating ideology of America, bringing oppression . . . boys. And white boys are freaks for that shit ... Then, after a while sisters get . . ."

    Excerpt from page 269: ". . . made me mad. "Are you swallowing your own line of shit, Arty Binewski? Aren't you forgetting . . . that you're just a two-bit freak with a gimmick?" "Get out," . . . make sure the twins were eating and not flushing their food. Arty let me do chores . . ."

    Excerpt from page 200: ". . . strain of depression remained impervious to lithium, and as Jenny's "shit year" ended and a new . . . forget how I feel about eating and won't think not to . . . basis." "My sisters are gonna freak out about my having shock treatments." "How do you feel . . ."

    Excerpt from page 156: ". . . in reception? She'd know that you left the office. She'd freak! It's not worth the risk. Hold on a sec-I11 get . . ."

    Excerpt from page 81: ". . . waves leapt up, if life went on as usual and freak accidents peppered a calm shore. That same week she found . . ."

    Excerpt from page 256: ". . . to have on him. "Look at me!" he shouts. "I'm shit and ev- erybody who looks at me knows I'm shit. . . ."

    Excerpt from page 176: ". . . signed her new identity on it below the little Irish freak. "I was just thinking of Billy," she explained. "Remember that . . ."

    Excerpt from page 90: ". . . been to that Salvadorian bistro on Eighty-third?" he asks. "We're eating there tonight." "Yeah. I mean . . . somewhere, and this, in turn, freaks me out. "The Fisher account," . . . Fisher account," Reeves says. "Oh shit," I say. "Don't remind us." "Lucky bastard," Hamlin says. "Has . . ."

    RS

    There is no superior technology.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  91. AMZN's FAQ on this feature by WaKall · · Score: 1

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1019 7041/104-8011833-2636716

    In particular:

    Why won't Search Inside the Book let me see more pages from a specific book?

    Our Search Inside the Book feature is designed to help our customers discover new books and ensure that they'll be satisfied with their purchases. To be fair to the publishers and authors who participate in our program, we only allow Search Inside the Book users to read a portion of the book.

    So, you can only see some % of the books pages as a unique customer (with a unique associated credit card).

  92. Patent on full-text search by ddyer-bennet · · Score: 1

    I don't see how they can patent full-text search in general. It's been around for decades. (Well, other than the usual way of some complete idiot in the patent office letting something nonsensical through.)

    As for full-text search on books, we launched the book search on dragaera.info a couple of weeks ago. Of course US patent goes by invention rather than exploitation -- but we had an in-house beta well over a year ago, too.

  93. Re:whats the point you're making in the first plac by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

    I set up a Citibank Virtual Account number with a $1 limit. It worked fine.