Following up on Google cancelling its newspaper digitization project, here are two more stories:
- Google archive decision ‘astonishing’ to Ottawa originator, by Vito Pilieci, The Ottawa Citizen (May 24, 2011).
Google’s decision to end support for its newspaper archival services is distressing news for the Ottawa businessman who sold Google the technology to digitize records.
“It’s disappointing, especially when you consider what I thought that this would do,” said Bob Huggins, former chief executive officer and co-founder of PaperOfRecord.com, which Google bought in 2008 for an undisclosed sum.
…Huggins suggested that Google should partner with public sector institutions, such as the Library of Congress in the United States, to continue the newspaper digitization effort. The information could be stored by the library for safekeeping and made available online for everyone to read.
“They need to give their head a shake here and realize they have some public responsibility,” added Huggins. “For a company that said they wanted to organize all of the world’s data, what happened to that mandate?”
While Google has shifted its focus away from digitizing historical newspapers, the company is trying to work hand-in-hand with newspapers to help them charge for content on their websites.
- Demise of Google Newspaper Archive Shows Need for National Digital Library Policy, by Irvin Muchnick, Beyond Chron, The San Francisco Alternative Daily (May 25, 2011).
…the collapse of the project reinforces the limits of self-appointed public utilities. Apparently, the newspaper archive wasn’t getting enough eyeballs to make the project profitable.
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