And More . . . (but no mention of Live Search Books)

Fortune Magazine (via OnlineMediaDaily) in an interview with Kevin Johnson of Microsoft, unveils a tiny part of the overall strategy of Microsoft in the epic battle, Microsoft vs. Google. The recent closure/reorganization of Live Book did not even rate a mention. There is some scary big-brother-esque "engagement mapping" mentioned.

And More . . .

The Chronicle of Higher Ed this morning featured a story, "Microsoft's Book-Search Project Has a Surprise Ending" By ANDREA L. FOSTER (nearly a week after the event, and I've included no links because it will disappear behind a wall after 5 days, both reasons why Chronicle is loosing ground to Inside).

I'm still not convinced Microsoft ever meant this project to be more than a pain in Google's side. Their "Surprise Ending" has the hallmarks of an attempt to "monetize" the effort in a more efficient way for them--with proprietary software and a deal to lease it to another company (Ingram), rather than proprietary algorithms and walled information. I never thought I would be defending Microsoft, makers of Outlook (ick).

Thanks to Lisa Bayer for the forward from CHE.

Take that, Google!

Microsoft's latest volley in their match with Google: They are ending the "Live Search" book digitization and search project, and making the digitized books available for free to the original "owners."