Digital Libraries, thanks to Google

The Google-ares continue to amaze me. They have a simply motto for their company, "Don't Be Evil," and right now anti-evil seems to be anti-Microsoft, but they are truly doing people some good, and I think they deserve their success. Their lastest idea is digitizing books and making them available online. This is a precursor to having all of great literature online and searchable, a long predicted goal for the internet that is only starting to take shape under Google's direction. If Google does this with the usual non-invasive approach they always have used, I think the service will be well-trafficed and they will rightly reep their large costs back. "Within two decades, most of the world's knowledge will be digitized and available, one hopes for free reading on the Internet, just as there is free reading in libraries today." All the libraries in the US, hopefully the world, with their collections online and connected in one place, Google. (and speaking of pure evil, the NYT's registration process is the exact definition of the term)

Then there is gmail, a wonderful service that forced other webmail services to up their stingy online storage (Apple and Microsoft still make you pay for the stuf gmail gives you for free). I hate how in Hotmail I was innondated with junk email from the first day. Microsoft was obivously selling my contact information. I've been on gmail over 3 months now and haven't seen a single bit of junk mail, the filter has been perfect. It loads without all the adds, too.

And then there is google desktop, a search engine for your computer that leapfrogs Microsoft and even Apple by allowing you all the power of Google search on your files on your hard drive. I haven't tried this one yet, I only use my PC for games. However, if it has half of the search capacities of Apple's Next Big Thing it should be great. Apple's spotlight is genius, you type search terms and they appear instantly, type "S" and you get everything with "S", type "So" and it narrows instantly, and so on. Whats more, the search is highly intelligent. If you type Paris, it's look in all your emails, all your documents, even maps. It'll find the people in your address book who where born in Paris, if that information is there. Google desktop doesn't go this far, but it's a huge step up from what Microsoft has now.

Then there is Google News which is the news, done right. Also, the google toolbar was the first IE bar that added a google search on the interface and blocked pop-ups. Simply great things. I think google would make an excellent stock to buy.

Oh, and Google also runs Blogger.