Not to be negative but the referred to post, by a Google employee, claims that you can search in your own books. However, when one actually goes to the Google My Library feature, there is a link to a FAQ that asks "Why can't I see all my books?" and answers as follows:
Why can't I read the entire book?
Many of the books in Google Books come from authors and publishers who participate in our Partner Program. For these books, our partners decide how much of the book is browsable -- anywhere from a few sample pages to the whole book.
For books that enter Google Books through the Library Project, what you see depends on the book's copyright status. We respect copyright law and the tremendous creative effort authors put into their work. If the book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright, you can page through the entire book and even download it and read it offline. But if the book is under copyright, and the publisher or author is not part of the Partner Program, we only show basic information about the book, similar to a card catalog, and, in some cases, a few snippets -- sentences of your search terms in context. The aim of Google Books is to help you discover books and learn where to buy or borrow them, not read them online from start to finish. It's like going to a bookstore and browsing - with a Google twist.
So you can't necessarily really search all of one's library. I would think the more contemporary the volume the less the chance. Pity actually -- I would pay some amount to search the books in my library (maybe that's what Google is trying to broker once it has your list of books...)
Not to be negative but the referred to post, by a Google employee, claims that you can search in your own books. However, when one actually goes to the Google My Library feature, there is a link to a FAQ that asks "Why can't I see all my books?" and answers as follows:
ReplyDeleteWhy can't I read the entire book?
Many of the books in Google Books come from authors and publishers who participate in our Partner Program. For these books, our partners decide how much of the book is browsable -- anywhere from a few sample pages to the whole book.
For books that enter Google Books through the Library Project, what you see depends on the book's copyright status. We respect copyright law and the tremendous creative effort authors put into their work. If the book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright, you can page through the entire book and even download it and read it offline. But if the book is under copyright, and the publisher or author is not part of the Partner Program, we only show basic information about the book, similar to a card catalog, and, in some cases, a few snippets -- sentences of your search terms in context. The aim of Google Books is to help you discover books and learn where to buy or borrow them, not read them online from start to finish. It's like going to a bookstore and browsing - with a Google twist.
http://books.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43729&ctx=sibling
So you can't necessarily really search all of one's library. I would think the more contemporary the volume the less the chance. Pity actually -- I would pay some amount to search the books in my library (maybe that's what Google is trying to broker once it has your list of books...)