In a dimly-lit room on the second level of the University of Michigan Library, Courtney Mitchel helped a giant desktop machine digest a rare Bible.
Mitchel is among hundreds of librarians making digital versions of the most fragile of books to be included in Google’s Book Search, a portal that will eventually lead users to all the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world.
“It’s monotonous,” the 24-year-old said. Then she knit her career hopes into the work. Google, the Internet’s leader in search says, the process it developed and is using for scanning the majority of the books in Book Search is proprietary.
> Insight from CANOE
The emergence of Google has been staggering for observers and threatening for established players in every market it has entered.
"This consolidates the marketplace to Google versus Microsoft," say analysts at stockbroker Canaccord-Adams.
Google is no longer a company taking pride in being simple and effective; rather it has ballooned and is now a multi-headed high tech beast eager and willing to not only get involved but increasingly take charge of every area online.
It is a strategy that could make Google vulnerable to attacks. Some say the company is spreading itself thin by over-diversifying its product range. More crucially, its source of income remains largely one-dimensional.
Via BBC
Google's share of the U.S. Internet search market rose to 56 percent in December from 51 percent at the end of 2006, while second-place Yahoo! Inc. lost ground, according to New York- based Nielsen- Online.
We're looking for Google to continue to gain share,'' said Jeff Donlon, managing director of technology research at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., which oversees more than $18 billion in assets, including Google shares.
Net income climbed 21 percent to $1.25 billion, or $3.91 a share, from $1.03 billion, or $3.29, a year earlier, according to the average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
