Google Books approaches total world domination, hosts fun contest

If the sole purpose of a corporation is to increase shareholder profits, Google didn’t get the memo.  Their mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful . . . ” which would seem to be both commendable and to threaten the future of libraries, except that in their “groundbreaking agreement”, users will pay and writers will get paid.  Brilliant!   The details of this collosal move will take some time to hash out, but in the meantime, Google is hosting this fun contest to promote Google Books.  Another kink they might need to work out is what pops up under “classics” in their welcome screen.  I wasn’t aware that The Manufacture of Hydraulic Cements by Albert Bleininger (1904), or Stage Hypnotism: a textbook of Occult entertainments by Prof. Leonides (1901) is a classic.  Perhaps in the fields of the Manufacture of Hydraulic Cements and Hypnotism, they are, but my point is that some pretty weird stuff pops up under “Classics”.  Just press refresh on their start page, over and over again, and you’ll see.   -Ed Scripsi