According to the official Google Blog there will be one more thing for consumers to flip for in the magazine world.
If you’ve ever wondered about the making of “The Cotton Club” or who were the new faces that popped up in ‘81, the answer may sitting at your fingertips with a simple search, thanks to Google’s latest ambitious effort to advance its long-standing goal of “providing access to all the world’s information.”
In a move to bring both current and past issues of magazines online, Google is moving forward yet again, announcing just last week that it will form partnerships with publishers and begin digitizing articles from a range of magazines including New York Magazine, Men’s Health and Popular Mechanics. This is good news for consumers who can view articles in full-color and who can also catch a glimpse of a retro hairstyle or snapshot of a vintage BMW in the many ads that are included, making select magazine titles complete, just like their glossy paper counterparts. In a matter of seconds, users can view magazine articles by using Google Book Search and can restrict searches to just magazine titles and dates by using the Advanced Book Search, located within Google Book Search.
“Over time, as we scan more articles, you'll see more and more magazines appear in Google Book Search results,” the Google Blog says. “Eventually, we'll also begin blending magazine results into our main Google.com search results, so you may begin finding magazines you didn't even know you were looking for.” Publishers may be able to cash in on the deal too. The Associated Press says that Google will be providing a link back to the participating magazine publisher’s Web site and will be giving each publisher a cut of the revenue that’s expected to be generated. But how this revenue is going to be generated is still not clear.
While this may turn out to be a win-win situation for Google, and the magazine publishers, we'll have to wait and see just how copyright issues will affect these new efforts, especially in light of Google’s recent $125 million dollar settlement with authors and publishers in the case involving the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers. But for now, it’s safe to say that Google has given magazines a half shot of caffeine and a potential other revenue stream that will hopefully energize the industry.