Sony Partners With Google To Bring More Than 500,000 Books To The Reader

[Tattncat]

Allessandro, I agree with you. I spent most of the day today on the Sony Google sight and I am quite enjoying what I downloaded.

[Tattncat]

Because there are actually some books out there that were not available that are now. I just downloaded some I have been searching for since I got my readers. I found them, at least some of them.

[salty_seadog]

Hi

I'm new here but have been readign this forum since I first saw the Sony Reader on the Gadget Show (UK) way back in last year and was bought one for Christmas.

I have a question on this topic, I would like to know if this googly books thing is available in the UK? I know that the Sony shop isn't and the link in the library on my laptop takes me to Waterstones (where the books are VERY expensive). Do I need to get a library update for the google to come through?

My reader has become my life and read from it every day in my lunch and whenever I get spare time, the only paper books I read now are modern ones (Pratchett and Tolkien mostly).

[Curly]

Sony-Google books in epub format only available at Sony ebook store which is a US site.

Try going to the Sony ebook store and download the US version of the software. (You will need to tick the box which says you live in the US.) Some people have been able to have both UK and US software running side by side. But I know it hasn't worked for everyone. I only have the US software loaded and I am able to access US site.

You won't be able to buy books from the US ebook store though if you can get someone in the US to buy you a gift voucher, you can use that.

[CommanderROR]

I hope google will eventually do away with this whole regional stuff...and not just google. It really can't be that an international system likte the internet gets artificial boundaries built into it...

[Jill75]

Originally Posted by frabjous

All right, I know these are free, and no one has any right to complain, but you'd think someone would at least scroll through these (even without reading them to correct OCR errors) to catch glaring errors.

These screenshots is from their ePub version of Bertrand Russell's Our Knowledge of the External World (1914). One shows the edge of one page, where random marginalia from the pbook is displayed as an image. The other shows fingertips of whoever scanned the book.



Crazy.

Yeah this is crazy. Reading through the book enjoying it and all of a sudden, you see this? I just wonder if they have quality control before loading the books?

But you cant deny that technology has really gone so far in making books available to many all over the world.

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

In spite of OCR scanning errors, fingers on the scanner (love that page) and even complete gibberish in some sections of some of the books, this is a MASSIVE project that will grow rapidly. Google is doing an incredible job of scanning in books that are out of copyright. There are half a million now for our Sony eReaders. Within two years we may well be looking at several million and still growing. And of course Goggle's goal is to eventually have every book ever written available on the Internet. Yes they all need to be proofread, and eventually they will be. But with this effort and others such as Gutenberg, clearly the digital reading revolution is well on its way.

Many of these books will be virtually one of a kind - never before available to the public. The concept of what is being handed to us is staggering.

I for one am thrilled by this news.

I totally agree. This is truly amazing! I'm now on my way to hunt for an old book called 'The Mottled Lizard' (I think). I tried to buy it about 8 years ago but it was out of print and unavailable.

edit: I see it's not a classic and not available. Not old enough...

[aleks]

I have noticed that several readers are complaining about the quality of the downloads. All I can say is that with 500,000 books out there maybe each of the complaining readers will volunteer to edit the OCRed documents. Be thankful for what we have gotten so far. The only other option is to wait for a 9.7 inch reader or buy an iliad to read the pdf files.

Personally, I am happy that I can access the documents. In the future I will buy a bigger reader but for now I am being patient.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by aleks

I have noticed that several readers are complaining about the quality of the downloads. All I can say is that with 500,000 books out there maybe each of the complaining readers will volunteer to edit the OCRed documents. Be thankful for what we have gotten so far. The only other option is to wait for a 9.7 inch reader or buy an iliad to read the pdf files.

Personally, I am happy that I can access the documents. In the future I will buy a bigger reader but for now I am being patient.

I don't think anyone, or not many, have said they weren't grateful and commenting on the general quality isn't necessarily complaining. Many have even asked how they could fix a book and submit it to them. If they allow for this I haven't found it yet.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by amgoforth

Harry how does one go about cleaning it up? There are a few I might like to do that to.

If you were to download the ePub you can change the extension to .zip and un-zip it to get at the underlying HTML. You can then compare the text to the PDF scan of the same book from the Google books website and make your corrections.

[mazzeltjes]

Originally Posted by Curly

Sony-Google books in epub format only available at Sony ebook store which is a US site.

Try going to the Sony ebook store and download the US version of the software. (You will need to tick the box which says you live in the US.) Some people have been able to have both UK and US software running side by side. But I know it hasn't worked for everyone. I only have the US software loaded and I am able to access US site.

You won't be able to buy books from the US ebook store though if you can get someone in the US to buy you a gift voucher, you can use that.

worked for me

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by amgoforth

Harry how does one go about cleaning it up? There are a few I might like to do that to.

1. Go to books.google.com, and search for the book you want. You'll probably find a copy as PDF of scanned page images. Save this link; you'll need to come back to it.

2. Download a copy of the book. Start reading it. When you come to an error, if it is obvious then fix it. If you don't know what it should say, then go to step 3.

3. Find a string of words near the error that you beleive to be correct. Go to the link you saved in step 1 and search for that string of words. This will get you close to the error, and you will be able to see what the correct text is.


Then again, some of these books have so many errors that you won't need to search for the correct text. You'll just advance through the book 1 page at a time.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by aleks

I have noticed that several readers are complaining about the quality of the downloads. All I can say is that with 500,000 books out there maybe each of the complaining readers will volunteer to edit the OCRed documents. Be thankful for what we have gotten so far.

I have no problem with anyone complaining about them -- it is not a reader's job to assist Google or Sony. These organizations are using the books for their own commercial goals (which is fine by me) and should use their own resources to do things correctly. Quality is just as important as quantity, IMHO.

I do have a problem with someone complaining about errors in a Project Gutenberg document without attempting to fix/improve it themselves for freely sharing with others.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Then again, some of these books have so many errors that you won't need to search for the correct text. You'll just advance through the book 1 page at a time.

4. Upload the corrected ePub book to MR.

BOb

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

4. Upload the corrected ePub book to MR.

BOb

I missed that one. Thank you.