Search Engine Journal

seattlepi.com Buzzworthy: Amazon: Search this book: “Amazon.com wants to let customers search the full text of thousands of non-fiction books, The New York Times reports. (Longer-lived link here.)
The strategic reasoning is noteworthy:
… the plan appears to be part of a strategy to compete with online search services like Google and Yahoo for consumers’ time and attention. Providing a searchable online database of the contents of books could make Amazon a more authoritative source of information, drawing additional traffic to its online retail store.
In other words, this looks like one more in a recent string of aggressive moves by other big tech brands to check Google’s growing power as a de facto gateway to the online world. Google now handles a third of all English-language Web searches, according to research firm comScore Networks. Other sources estimate its market share as high as 55 percent.”