2009年1月31日 星期六

"提示惡意軟件"Google Error Sends Warning Worldwide

Google Error Sends Warning Worldwide


Published: January 31, 2009

Google’s Internet search service malfunctioned for nearly 55 minutes Saturday morning, upending users around the world with search results that carried false safety warnings and Web links that did not work.

The company acknowledged Saturday that all searches produced links with the same warning message: “This site may harm your computer.” Clicking on any of the links led to an error message stating that the desired site could not be reached.

“What happened?” Google explained in its blog. “Very simply, human error.”

Google said it periodically updates its list of sites suspected of carrying dangerous software that could harm computers, and that Saturday morning a Google employee mistyped a Web address for one such site, causing all sites to be flagged harmful.

There was some momentary tension when Google seemed to imply that the glitch was caused by StopBadware.org, the company that helps Google determine which sites are unsafe. Google later posted a statement that took the blame for the error.

“We have a good ongoing relationship with StopBadware.org,” a Google spokesman, Gabriel Stricker, said in a telephone interview. “In our post, we tried to clarify our role in this error.”

Google is not known for glitches, but there have been other recent ones. Google Maps had a software glitch last month that sent drivers trying to get to different points within Staten Island, specifically zip codes 10302 and 10308, on a 176-mile detour to Schenectady instead.

The glitches in Google Maps and Google search were unrelated, Mr. Stricker said. As for Saturday’s search engine failure, he added: “Our Web search is extremely reliable, and that’s why when an interruption occurs, even if it’s for a matter of minutes, for a Saturday morning, people notice it.”





"提示惡意軟件"很好



新浪科技訊 1月31日23:10消息,谷歌英文及中文網頁搜索功能今日晚間將絕大多數搜索結果均提示含有惡意軟件,部分涉及的網站則聲稱並未有類似情況,他們認為是谷歌的提示出了問題。

  值得一提的是,在谷歌網頁搜索中輸入『谷歌』,結果提示稱『該網站可能含有惡意軟件,有可能會危害您的電腦。』

  據悉,這提示本來是谷歌針對惡意軟件研發的一項預警功能,可能是該功能出錯,導致所有資訊都出現了上述提示。

  截稿前,谷歌中國相關負責人表示對此尚不知情。

2009年1月26日 星期一

GDrive?

第二次讀到類似消息


告別硬碟 GDrive個資保密引疑慮

〔編譯張沛元/綜合報導〕英國觀察家報二十五日報導,Google即將推出讓使用者可透過任何網際網路連線來存取自己個人電腦的服務─Google Drive(GDrive)。但網路自由倡議者警告,此舉恐有導致個人資料外洩,甚至遭他人控制之虞。

科 技新聞網站TG Daily指出,傳聞已久、被形容為Google迄今最令人期待的產品GDrive,預料將在今年推出。GDrive的問世,將終結仰賴一顆強大硬碟的桌 上型電腦時代,改將使用者的個人檔案與操作系統,儲存於Google自己的伺服器上,然後透過網際網路進行存取。

GDrive被視為對幾乎獨霸全球個人電腦的微軟視窗作業系統的一種思維轉換,改採「雲端運算」,即在十萬八千里外的偏遠資料中心進行運算處理程序與儲存。

目 前有愈來愈多家庭與企業使用者使用通常免費的網路服務,從電子郵件(如Hotmail與Gmail)與數位相片儲存(如Flickr與Picasa),到 文件應用與試算表(如Google Apps);此時就算少了桌上型電腦或硬碟壞了,也不會危及資料安全,因為這些資料通常被儲存在「雲端」,而且能夠從任何電腦透過網路進行存取。

GDrive 正是根據這個邏輯,得出以下結論:把電腦使用者的個人電腦硬碟裡的內容,轉移到Google的伺服器上。如此一來,個人電腦將更簡單與廉價,以及變成充作 上網入口(可能透過Google手機作業系統Android的改造版)的設備。此時,電腦可以被視為軟體而非硬體。

但並非所有人都歡迎Google的新產品。捍衛電腦使用者自由的慈善機構「自由軟體基金會」執行長布朗,提出以下質疑:「你在不在乎有人能看到你電腦裡的所有資料?」

Google拒絕證實是否即將推出GDrive,但坦承「雲端運算」的需求與日俱增。Google的產品與行銷部門主管阿姆斯壯說,他們要改變人們的思考方向,從過去的這是我的個人電腦變為這是我與資訊互動的方式,這是我與網路互動的方式」。

オバマ氏は大統領選で1800本の動画をYouTubeに投稿

オバマ氏は大統領選で1800本の動画をYouTubeに投稿、グーグル、YouTubeのブランディング活用に意欲

グーグル シニアシニアプロダクトマネージャーの徳生裕人氏
グーグル シニアシニアプロダクトマネージャーの徳生裕人氏
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オバマ大統領は週1回の所信表明にYouTubeを活用、動画のダウンロードも可能にしている
オバマ大統領は週1回の所信表明にYouTubeを活用、動画のダウンロードも可能にしている
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 グーグルは2009年1月26日、記者説明会を開催し、オバマ米大統領の大統領選における動画投稿共有サイト「YouTube」活用状況を明らかにし た。オバマ氏は品質より頻繁に支持者へメッセージを送ることを重視し、キャンペーン期間中に約1800本の動画を投稿。合計で1億回以上再生されたとい う。YouTubeとテレビCMと連携させることでテレビ視聴者数の増加も実現したという。

 選挙戦終盤にテレビで30分のインフォマーシャルを流した際には、その放映3時間前にYouTubeに動画を投稿。その情報がオバマ氏のチャンネ ルを登録している支持者を通じてクチコミで広がり、「テレビCMを見る人が増え、テレビとYouTubeの相乗効果が起きた」(YouTubeを担当する グーグルのシニアプロダクトマネージャー徳生裕人氏)という。

 選挙戦の最後3日間には、52本の動画を投稿した。こうした大量の動画投稿を支えたのは2人の撮影班に加え、30人のボランティアの動画作成ス タッフ。専用カメラだけでなく、ときには事務所のWebカメラを使って撮影し、クオリティより「頻繁にメッセージを送ることを重視していた」(徳生氏)の が特徴だという。

 支持者による動画投稿も盛んで、「Vote Different」「Yes We Can」「Barack O'Bollywood」などが多く視聴された。また、対抗候補の支持者がオバマ氏の発言の一部を切り出して失言をしたかのようなビデオを投稿したときは、誤解を解くように発言全体を投稿するような動きもあったという。

 大統領になった現在は、週1回の所信表明にYouTubeを活用。ハイビジョン映像も配信して、さらに「(YouTubeとしては)実験的にダウ ンロード可能にしている」(徳生氏)。許可を得るために大統領に提案したところ、「ぜひ。国民の税金で作っている動画なので」と返事があり、認められたと いう。

 記者説明会では、2009年1月1日にグーグル日本法人の社長に就任した辻野晃一郎氏が2009年の事業方針を披露した。その一つとして、「(消 費行動モデルの)AISASのA(注目)とI(興味)の部分も、(グーグルが広告主に提供できる)一つの可能性として訴求していく」と説明した。従来、 AISASの中央に位置するS(検索)に訴求する検索連動型広告を中核に事業展開してきたが、2009年はYouTubeがA(注目)、I(興味)に効く メディアということを訴求し、収益化に向けて本格的に展開する考えだ。

 また、米国ではバナー広告配信のダブルクリックを買収しており、「(日本のダブルクリックはヘラクレスに上場しトランスコスモスの子会社で)日本 では他国と(事情が)異なる」(辻野氏)としながら、「ディスプレー広告全般に力を入れていく」(同氏)と、ネット広告によるブランディング需要に動画と バナー広告ネットワークの両面から応えていく方針を示したた。

2009年1月21日 星期三

Investors see economy slowing Google's growth

ANUARY 23, 2009

Google Net Hit by Charge, but Ad Sales Are Strong



Google Inc. posted a 68% drop in fourth-quarter profit, dragged down in part by its investment in AOL, but sales were strong despite the worsening economy.

Results suggested that Google's search-advertising business and cost-cutting campaign are helping it weather the recession better than other Internet companies.

The Mountain View, Calif., company posted net income of $382 million, or $1.21 a share, down from $1.21 billion, or $3.79 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose at an 18% annual rate, down from 31% in the third quarter, to $5.7 billion, from $4.83 billion. Profit ...


Investors see economy slowing Google's growth

Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:12pm EST
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[-] Text [+]

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street is reining in its usual optimism for Google Inc (GOOG.O) as analysts worry the Web search leader's fourth-quarter earnings could be hit by keyword pricing deflation as the U.S. recession takes hold.

Google, which reports earnings after markets close on Thursday, will likely meet or slightly beat most financial forecasts, said investors and analysts.

But Google's story as a rapid growth company, which would benefit as traditional media advertising falters in an economic slowdown, has changed in recent weeks. Investors now believe Google's fortunes will follow the troubled economy more closely than previously thought.

"Clearly there was an impact in the quarter from economic issues," said Darren Chervitz, a portfolio manager at Jacob Internet Fund, a long-term holder of Google stock.

"We've seen it sporadically despite their claims that search will be resistant to a recession. I'd be shocked if they had a good quarter," Chervitz added.

Google makes most of its revenue from paid search advertising, when users click on advertiser links that come up with their queries. The cost per click, or price an advertiser pays for keywords, is determined by an automated auction.

Advertisers are more inclined to bid higher when there's a better rate of click-throughs to view their advertised services. Some Google investors think in a slow economy fewer consumers are clicking through to buy -- hence bids will be much lower, harming the search company's top-line revenue.

While Google doesn't provide quarterly outlooks, there are market signs of deflationary pressure.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI.O) Chief Executive Barry Diller told investors earlier this month that his company's search engine Ask.com, which uses Google's advertising platform, said that over the past few weeks cost-per-click pricing appeared to have fallen around 5 percent to 10 percent from a year ago.

Bernstein Research said its channel checks indicated a "sharp dip" in keyword pricing from late October.

Sandeep Aggrawal, an analyst at Collins Stewart, said he and others will be paying close attention to Google's net revenue growth between quarters. "Wall Street is expecting 2 percent, and anything below that will not be good," said Aggrawal.

WALL STREET EXPECTS

On average, analysts are expecting Google to report a 2 percent rise in fourth quarter gross revenue to $5.65 billion from the third quarter, with net profit at $4.16 a share, according to a Reuters Estimates poll.

Many investors are still confident that Google's sheer scale leaves plenty of room to grow and diversify.

"The results are unlikely to change our core long-term view on Google and any sell-off, post earnings, would just be another attractive opportunity for us," said George Kurian, investment analyst at Tradition Capital Management.

With its nearest but distant competitor Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) still in disarray after appointing a new chief executive last week, and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) still undecided about its next move in search, Google is seen as being in a strong position for some time both on the Web and new platforms.

Kurian said Google is well positioned for leadership in many high-growth markets such as International search, mobile ads, video search and others.

Google has acknowledged economic challenges. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has said the economic environment is "uncharted territory."

The company has focused on cost cuts and slowing capital investments. It started axing thousands of contractor roles late last year and last week it said it would be cutting 100 recruiter full-time jobs, significant for a company that has been hiring at rapid pace in recent quarters.

The company is also shutting smaller engineering outposts and wrapping up unprofitable online trial projects.

Google on Tuesday killed a program to sell newspaper ads because it wasn't making enough money.

Investors said they welcome operating cost discipline but worry what it says about Google's view of its future growth.

"I don't think this is a case of an overhaul they have to do with cost cuts. It's more about setting your targets according to your revenue," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; editing by Richard Chang)

(Click here to see Reuters MediaFile blog)

2009年1月20日 星期二

Google Ends Efforts to Sell Newspaper Ads

Google Ends Efforts to Sell Newspaper Ads

By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: January 20, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s efforts to expand its advertising empire beyond the confines of the Internet have hit their first major setback.

The company said on Tuesday that it would end a two-year-old program to sell ads in newspapers because the effort, called Google Print Ads, had failed to live up to its expectations.

“While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted,” wrote Spencer Spinnell, director of Google Print Ads, on an official corporate blog.

Google said the program, which sought to bring Google’s automated method of selling ads through auctions to the newspaper industry, would end Feb. 28.

The program began in November 2006 as a test. Google later expanded it to about 800 newspapers, including large dailies like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The San Jose Mercury News.

But many newspapers used the program primarily for selling small amounts of ad space they could not sell themselves, newspaper publishers and industry analysts said. The ads were often sold at below-market rates.

“Financially, it was negligible for both Google and publishers,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “None of these deals amounted to much.”

But some publishers, especially at smaller newspapers, may feel the impact of the program’s demise.

“We got some good business out of it,” said Steve Rossi, president and chief executive of the California Newspapers Partnership, which includes more than 30 daily newspapers owned by the MediaNews Group, Gannett and others.

The Google Print Ads program, along with two similar efforts by Google to sell ads on television and radio, were seen as high-profile tests of the company’s ability to bring the efficiencies of its automated marketplace for online ads to large, and sometimes, inefficient advertising markets.

Analysts said that all the programs had faced similar challenges and had been slow to gain traction with advertisers.

In radio, Google initially struggled to secure enough ad space to make the program attractive to marketers. In television, the company’s program has been looked at with suspicion, especially by cable companies that see Google as a competitor to their own efforts to sell targeted ads. The company is selling small amounts of ad space on the Dish Network, and since September, on some cable networks owned by NBC Universal, including MSNBC, CNBC and SciFi.

“If one was to drop out, the first was going to be newspapers, followed by radio,” Mr. Lindsay said. “TV is the one that has got the most legs.”

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the company’s radio and television ad sales programs.

Despite the limited size of Google Print Ads, some marketers were attracted to it, as the program often gave them the opportunity to place ads at prices lower than listed rates.

“It was very easy to use and we got very favorable pricing from many newspapers,” said Bruce Telkamp, executive vice president of eHealth, which runs eHealthInsurance.com. Mr. Telkamp said print ads were a small part of the company’s marketing budget.

In recent weeks, Google has closed several other small products and services that have failed to gain traction as it seeks to reduce costs.

2009年1月11日 星期日

Google搜索找到失蹤女孩

BBC
Google搜索找到失蹤女孩

手機加Google,高科技找回了納塔麗(當地警方照片)。
手機加Google,高科技找回了納塔麗(當地警方照片)。

在美國馬薩諸塞州的安瑟爾鎮,手機信號和Google的"街景視圖"功能(Street View)幫助找到了一名被祖母拐帶走的九歲女孩。

當地警方接到報警,說九歲的納塔莉被人帶走。于是一名警官和一名消防員聯手展開了搜索。

他們首先通過納塔麗手機中的全球定位(GPS)功能確認了她的大致位置,并用地圖軟件把定位經緯度還原成了一個位于弗吉尼亞州的位址,然后輸入了Google的"街景視圖"(Street View)。

通過觀察,搜索的警察把目標鎖定在了一個旅店,并通知了弗吉尼亞州警方,結果他們真的在那里找到了失蹤的納塔麗。

本來,納塔麗的祖母羅斯跟孩子的合法監護人說,要帶她出去共度一個周末。

安瑟爾鎮警方負責人安德森對BBC說,結果這位祖母打來電話,表示她不准備讓納塔麗回來,并要帶她離開馬薩諸塞州。

警方隨后聯絡了羅斯,但她仍不肯歸還納塔麗。于是,警方開始了"高科技尋人"。

2005年起,美國法律規定手機服務商必須能把67%的用戶定位到100米的范圍內,把95%的用戶定位到300米的范圍內。

這一要求使得多數美國新手機都安裝了全球定位(GPS)功能。

以前,Google地圖的Street View因為提供街頭實景,不止一次暴露人們的隱私而遭到批評,但也有勇敢者趁圖像采集車開來之際打開求婚標語,傳為一時佳話。

這次納塔麗的獲救無疑又將給關于Street View的爭議增添新的論據。




2009年1月6日 星期二

IE 瀏覽器 Google負面的報導 wrap-up

微軟IE瀏覽器市場佔有率下降
2009年01月05日10:40



2
008年下半年﹐微軟(Microsoft Corp.)的互聯網瀏覽器用戶流失﹐表明由微軟長期佔據支配地位的瀏覽器市場競爭加劇。

根據調研公司網絡應用公司(Net Applications)的數據﹐微軟的Internet Explorer瀏覽器2008年12月份的市場佔有率為68%﹐低於5月份的74%。記者暫時無法聯繫到微軟的代表就此置評。

微軟瀏覽器市場佔有率下滑﹐對於瀏覽器技術來說意義重大。長期以來﹐微軟在瀏覽器技術方面佔據支配地位。總部位於華盛頓州雷德蒙德的微軟於20世紀90年代致力於瀏覽器技術﹐將其作為抵御網景(Netscape Communications Corp.)競爭並最終打敗該公司的一種手段。

但Internet Explorer最近遭遇三方面的沖擊。首先﹐蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)的Mac電腦用戶越來越多﹐Mac電腦採用的是蘋果公司開發的Safari瀏覽器。此外﹐Mozilla Foundation推出的開源瀏覽器火狐(Firefox)和谷歌(Google Inc.)去年發佈的Chrome瀏覽器越來越受歡迎﹐也對Internet Explorer提出挑戰﹔網絡應用公司的數據顯示﹐火狐去年12月份的市場佔有率為21%﹐高於5月份的18%﹔Safari的市場佔有率則由5月份的6%上升至8%﹔去年9月份發佈的Chrome的市場佔有率由0.7%升至1%以上。

網絡應用公司警告說﹐假日期間網絡訪問量增加﹐可能是火狐、Safari、Chrome等非微軟瀏覽器使用量上升的原因。Internet Explorer通常是辦公首選網絡瀏覽器。

瀏覽器技術具有重要的戰略意義﹐谷歌和微軟等公司可藉此鞏固自身的互聯網服務及應用業務。

John Letzing





一些負面的報導

Google News Alert for: google


Google Ranked Third Worst Spam Provider
InformationWeek - Manhasset,NY,USA
The problem Google faces, along with every other online service provider, is that online services that can be abused will be abused. ...
See all stories on this topic
Google grab bag: Chinese lawsuit, 9/11 ASCII art
CNET News - San Francisco,CA,USA
It's time for our aperiodic wrap-up of Google items. We'll start off with the most unusual, in my opinion: wacky ASCII art. These three ASCII characters ...
See all stories on this topic

Model sues Google over mean, nasty blog remarks
CNET News - San Francisco,CA,USA
Liskula Cohen, a Canadian model, has sued Google because of offensive remarks made about her on a blog hosted by its Blogger publishing service, ...
See all stories on this topic
Macworld preview: Apple takes on Google with cloud computing plans
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
The service, which will rival Google's "Docs" application, is free but will cost money when Apple has finished it. “Cloud computing” refers to the idea of ...
See all stories on this topic

RESEARCH ALERT-Merriman upgrades Google to neutral
Reuters - USA
Jan 6 (Reuters) - Merriman Curhan Ford upgraded Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to "neutral" from "sell" and said the Internet search giant ...
See all stories on this topic
China raps Google for allowing 'vulgar' content
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
(01-05) 17:42 PST -- China's government criticized Google and 18 other Web sites for failing to crack down on Internet pornography on Monday, ...
See all stories on this topic
第一淫

2009年1月4日 星期日

Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books

Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books


Published: January 4, 2009

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Ben Zimmer, executive producer of a Web site and software package called the Visual Thesaurus, was seeking the earliest use of the phrase “you’re not the boss of me.” Using a newspaper database, he had found a reference from 1953.

Skip to next paragraph
Darcy Padilla for The New York Times

Members of Google’s book search team at the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. From left, Alexander Macgillivray, Daniel Clancy, Nicole Alston, Adam Smith and Jim Gerber.

Related

Times Topics: Google Inc.

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

Google’s book program makes it possible to read on a computer screen a page scanned from a rare Bible that is centuries old.

But while using Google’s book search recently, he found the phrase in a short story contained in “The Church,” a periodical published in 1883 and scanned from the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Ever since Google began scanning printed books four years ago, scholars and others with specialized interests have been able to tap a trove of information that had been locked away on the dusty shelves of libraries and in antiquarian bookstores.

According to Dan Clancy, the engineering director for Google book search, every month users view at least 10 pages of more than half of the one million out-of-copyright books that Google has scanned into its servers.

Google’s book search “allows you to look for things that would be very difficult to search for otherwise,” said Mr. Zimmer, whose site is visualthesaurus.com.

A settlement in October with authors and publishers who had brought two copyright lawsuits against Google will make it possible for users to read a far greater collection of books, including many still under copyright protection.

The agreement, pending approval by a judge this year, also paved the way for both sides to make profits from digital versions of books. Just what kind of commercial opportunity the settlement represents is unknown, but few expect it to generate significant profits for any individual author. Even Google does not necessarily expect the book program to contribute significantly to its bottom line.

“We did not think necessarily we could make money,” said Sergey Brin, a Google founder and its president of technology, in a brief interview at the company’s headquarters. “We just feel this is part of our core mission. There is fantastic information in books. Often when I do a search, what is in a book is miles ahead of what I find on a Web site.”

Revenue will be generated through advertising sales on pages where previews of scanned books appear, through subscriptions by libraries and others to a database of all the scanned books in Google’s collection, and through sales to consumers of digital access to copyrighted books. Google will take 37 percent of this revenue, leaving 63 percent for publishers and authors.

The settlement may give new life to copyrighted out-of-print books in a digital form and allow writers to make money from titles that had been out of commercial circulation for years. Of the seven million books Google has scanned so far, about five million are in this category.

Even if Google had gone to trial and won the suits, said Alexander Macgillivray, associate general counsel for products and intellectual property at the company, it would have won the right to show only previews of these books’ contents. “What people want to do is read the book,” Mr. Macgillivray said.

Users are already taking advantage of out-of-print books that have been scanned and are available for free download. Mr. Clancy was monitoring search queries recently when one for “concrete fountain molds” caught his attention. The search turned up a digital version of an obscure 1910 book, and the user had spent four hours perusing 350 pages of it.

For scholars and others researching topics not satisfied by a Wikipedia entry, the settlement will provide access to millions of books at the click of a mouse. “More students in small towns around America are going to have a lot more stuff at their fingertips,” said Michael A. Keller, the university librarian at Stanford. “That is really important.”

When the agreement was announced in October, all sides hailed it as a landmark settlement that permitted Google to proceed with its scanning project while protecting the rights and financial interests of authors and publishers. Both sides agreed to disagree on whether the book scanning itself violated authors’ and publishers’ copyrights.

In the months since, all parties to the lawsuits — as well as those, like librarians, who will be affected by it — have had the opportunity to examine the 303-page settlement document and try to digest its likely effects.

Some librarians privately expressed fears that Google might charge high prices for subscriptions to the book database as it grows. Although nonprofit groups like the Open Content Alliance are building their own digital collections, no other significant private-sector competitors are in the business. In May, Microsoft ended its book scanning project, effectively leaving Google as a monopoly corporate player.

David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said the company wanted to push the book database to as many libraries as possible. “If the price gets too high,” he said, “we are simply not going to have libraries that can afford to purchase it.”

For readers who might want to buy digital access to an individual scanned book, Mr. Clancy said, Google was likely to sell at least half of the books for $5.99 or less. Students and faculty at universities who subscribe to the database will be able to get the full contents of all the books free.

For the average author, “this is not a game changer” in an economic sense, said Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers and president of the digital media investments group at Bertelsmann, the parent company of Random House, the world’s largest publisher of consumer books.

“They will get paid for the use of their book, but whether they will get paid so much that they can start living large — I think that’s just a fantasy,” Mr. Sarnoff said. “I think there will be a few authors who do see significant dollars out of this, but there will be a vast number of authors who see insignificant dollars out of this.”

But, he added, “a few hundred dollars for an individual author can equate to a considerable sum for a publisher with rights to 10,000 books.”

So far, publishers that have permitted Google to offer searchable digital versions of their new in-print books have seen a small payoff. Macmillan, the company that owns publishing houses including Farrar, Straus & Giroux and St. Martin’s Press and represents authors including Jonathan Franzen and Janet Evanovich, offers 11,000 titles for search on Google. In 2007, Macmillan estimated that Google helped sell about 16,400 copies.

Authors view the possibility of readers finding their out-of-print books as a cultural victory more than a financial one.

“Our culture is not just Stephen King’s latest novel or the new Harry Potter book,” said James Gleick, a member of the board of the Authors Guild. “It is also 1,000 completely obscure books that appeal not to the one million people who bought the Harry Potter book but to 100 people at a time.”

Some scholars worry that Google users are more likely to search for narrow information than to read at length. “I have to say that I think pedagogically and in terms of the advancement of scholarship, I have a concern that people will be encouraged to use books in this very fragmentary way,” said Alice Prochaska, university librarian at Yale.

Others said they thought readers would continue to appreciate long texts and that Google’s book search would simply help readers find them.

“There is no short way to appreciate Jane Austen, and I hope I’m right about that,” said Paul Courant, university librarian at the University of Michigan. “But a lot of reading is going to happen on screens. One of the important things about this settlement is that it brings the literature of the 20th century back into a form that the students of the 21st century will be able to find it.”

Google’s book search has already entered the popular culture, in the film version of “Twilight,” based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. Bella, one of the main characters, uses Google to find information about a local American Indian tribe. When the search leads her to a book, what does she do?

She goes to a bookstore and buys it.

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