MS rolls out its "me too" book search tool

As most know, Google debuted a reasonably amazing plan to digitize pretty much everything out of copyright that has ever been put to print and make it searchable. This will be great, as there are a number of book reports I wrote in high school that I would love to see again. Google Book Search has been extremely interesting to watch as it evolves and grows.

Well, as imitation is the surest indicia of success/importance/covetiveness, Google should be pleased that MS is rolling out their own iteration of book search. The major difference between the two, other than the institutions playing with each, is that MS is only going to scan material out of copyright (in keeping with their rather narrow and/or draconian view of copyright) and Google is doing a whole bunch more (mostly with publisher's consent). In my not remotely humble opinion, this means Google's efforts will be far more useful...but time will tell.