Microsoft to launch book search engine

Microsoft is to go toe-to-toe with Google when it launches its own book search engine next year.

Already in operation, Google Print, which is scanning works from Harvard, Stanford and Michigan universities, was last week sued by five leading publishers over claims it infringes authors’ copyright.

Perhaps in an effort to illustrate that Google is, in fact, being evil, Microsoft announced that its MSN Book Search would be affiliated with the Open Content Alliance, the benign group formed by Yahoo! and Internet Archive patrons that pledges to consult all copyright holders before putting their works online.

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