[Web4lib] Google Print

[K.G. Schneider]

> For searching books -- if someone seeks a book that's relevant on a
> particular topic -- a provider that searches really good metadata may
> deliver a much more useful service than one that indexes the full text
> of the book.

I think it's the combination of the two types of search--baggy
(search-based) and skin-tight (metadata-based)--that is most effective and
most likely to help repair the search where the user seeks X but uses term
Y. As Rich seems to suggest, this is something Amazon appears to grasp
better than Google, where search is uber alles. 

I'm surprised Google is so resolutely anti-metadata. I wonder if part of
their strategy isn't simply being so overwhelmingly the one true search
experience that widespread information-seeking behaviors are forced to
adjust to how they organize the world.

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com