San Francisco, Dec 07: Technology heavyweight
Microsoft will unveil an online library on Thursday that will
compete with Google's controversial project to digitise the
world's books, the company said.
Microsoft said it would launch a us test of live
search books featuring tens of thousands of out-of-copyright
books, including works held by the British library and major
universities in Toronto and California.
"With this initial release we've focused on making the
reading experience as natural as possible," Project Director
Cliff Guren wrote in a Weblog entry posted on the Microsoft
website.
"The US beta launch of live search books is a big step
forward in advancing the way people discover information
through the integration of content that has been off-limits
to the traditional search experience, until now."
The Redmond, Washington, company has made fresh
book-scanning partnerships with New York public library and
the American museum of veterinary medicine, according to
Guren.
In late August, Google restarted its Google book
search project initiated in 2004 with the lofty aim of
scanning every literary work into digital format and making
them available online.
Google has formed partnerships with major universities
such as Harvard, Oxford, the New York public library,
complutense of Madrid and the University of California to add
their collections to its virtual book shelves.
In mid-October the University of Wisconsin made its
extensive selection of historical works available to the
mountain view, California-based internet powerhouse.
She said the web services which could be incorporated
include Microsoft's Windows Live and Mappoint Services,
besides offerings from internet companies Amazon.Com, Ebay,
Google and Yahoo.
The Sandbox would offer Microsoft products including
connected services and customer care framework and Microsoft
solutions for hosted messaging. It would also offer from Xbox
Live, Microsoft TV, Microsoft Flexgo and Microsoft Solution
for enhanced VoIP services, she said.
The connected services sandbox was established to help
developers produce applications for mobile devices, allowing
operators to offer 'mashups' -- the term for internet
applications that combine services from different sources --
to mobile handsets.
Mashups created using connected services sandbox can help
generate new sources of revenue for operators besides helping
to attract new subscribers and retain existing users.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, December 07, 2006, 00:00