Thursday, November 17, 2005

Google Print Now Google Book Search

First it was codenamed “Project Ocean.” Then it was released as “Google Print.” And now? Now print.google.com redirects to books.google.com and is simply called “Google Book Search.”

Why the change? I assume “book search” better describes what Google wants to let users do with the service. Also, “Google Print” to some might have sounded too much like “Google wants to conquer print as well.” Searching on the other hand is what Google is known for and good at anyway, and it’s a little more passive – “we’re only looking at your books, like we’re only looking at web pages... no harm done, and no copyright issues either!” Of course, I’m only guessing...

What does Google say why the changed the name? In the official Google Blog, the statement is this:

“Well, one factor was all the comments we got about how excited people were that Google Print would help them print out their documents, or web pages they visit – which of course it won’t.

More important, the change reflects our product’s evolution. When we launched Google Print, our goal was to make it easier for users to discover books. Now that we’re starting to achieve that, we think a more descriptive name will help clarify what our users can do with it: namely, search the full text of books to find ones that interest them and learn where to buy or borrow them.”

[Thanks Caleb E.]

Google Print Now Google B ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (0)

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