This month marks the three year anniversary of Google Book Search (originally named Google Print). The wrangling from the publishing industry over the introduction of Google Book Search (which still simmers today), was no less than Zeus’s reaction to Prometheus (he’s the one who stole Zeus’s fire and gave it to us mere mortals – Zeus was not a happy camper).

The story goes, it was fire that ultimately released mortals from their dark caves and unleashed a period of inventiveness, productivity and a whole new way of looking at the world. Sound familiar?

SAS Publishing has participated in Google Book Search from the beginning. And from the month over month increase in the number of searches that you are doing within our books, I suspect that you’re finding value in the experience. In addition to full text search capability, Google Book Search offers customers “buy this book" links to local resellers (local to wherever you happen to live). If you’re interested in searching only within those books published by SAS, use Google Book Search from within the SAS Publishing Catalog.

Is providing access to all this content good? There are three constituents who need to answer that question: you, our customers; you, our authors; and us, as a business. From the conversations I’ve had thus far with all three groups, the answer is a resounding “yes".

This past weekend Google announced their newest product, Google Knols. It’s a platform (requiring attribution) for sharing, communicating and contributing content. The blogosphere is abuzz with commentary and critique. Consumers of content will continue to be offered new and interesting ways to participate in knowledge sharing. Some avenues will be viable, others not. I bet a lot of those early “mere mortals" got burned before they realized how to roast the perfect brontosaurus burger!