December 5, 2006 9:00 PM PST
Microsoft's new tool is similar in nature to Google Book Search in that it also allows full texts of public domain works to be viewed, searched or printed. Like Google, Microsoft has chosen to use PDF files.
Microsoft has also restricted its book scanning project to noncopyright books, with publishers having the option to opt-in if they want in-copyright publications to be scanned for the project. Google, in contrast, has been scanning all books, but only making public domain books available for full text views.
Photo by Microsoft
