Full Speed Ahead For Microsoft’s Live Book Search

“Microsoft’s strategic shift into Google territory took another step forward today with the announcement that the software giant has signed a digitisation agreement with a digital scanning specialist, Kirtas Technologies. The deal … will enable Microsoft to forge ahead with its Live Book Search portal…. Its Live Book Search portal, to be launched early next year, will make available two strands of material: out-of-copyright scholarly material from educational establishments, and in-copyright books that are sent to Microsoft by publishers or authors and which are scanned by the company free of charge.”