Book sales get a lift from Google scan plan -- but some pubs still clueless

"FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Publishers are starting to report an uptick in sales from Google Inc.'s online program that lets readers peek inside books, two years after the launch of its controversial plan to digitally scan everything in print.

"Google has been enlisting publishers to voluntarily submit their books so that Web searchers can more easily find titles related to their interests, but some fear the project could lead to piracy or exploitation of their copyrighted content.

"Google Book Search has helped us turn searchers into consumers," said Colleen Scollans, the director of online sales for Oxford University Press. She declined to provide specific figures, but said that sales growth has been "significant." Scollans estimated that 1 million customers have viewed 12,000 Oxford titles using the Google program.

The rest of the story is here.

Most telling, however, are those clueless publishers who are spending heavily to buoild their own online repositories. Can you say, "doomed?" SUUUURE you can!

People are NOT going to stumble around a collection of individual publisher sites. This is yet more money down the drain ... publishers and technology don't play well together.