Read O'Reilly Hacks Series books using Google hack

[Brian]

Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion has stumbled upon a way to read most of the O'Reilly Hacks Series books using Google, and has posted a how-to. According to Steve, this hack will work for other books as well *for now*. Oh, the irony...

Read the full article.

[doctorow]

LOL that is a good one!

Besides, I love O'Reilly books.

[Brian]

Originally Posted by doctorow

LOL that is a good one!

Besides, I love O'Reilly books.

I'm a big fan of O'Reilly's books. My personal library of books with strange animals on the covers is growing quickly as about about 1/2 of my book purchases these days are for O'Reilly books, and I'm even considering supplementing my purchases with a Safari Bookshelf subscription.

I also like the Google book search service that makes this hack possible, and I often use it to preview books that I am interested in purchasing.

This hack is a very ironic twist as Tim O'Reilly is one of Google Print's most outspoken defenders in the Authors Guild vs Google debate. Chances are, this hack has been around since the beginning of the Google book search, and it will only support the Authors Guild's claims.

I think Steve's article about this loophole is sure to stir-up even more debate, and it will be interesting to see how Google, Tim O'Reilly, and the Authors Guild respond.

[Bob Russell]

Doesn't O'Reilly also offer some of it's books online anyway? I think this might not (I hope) damage the effort vs Authors Guild because as much as I like ebooks, if it's a manual or reference book or tech book I really like having a paper copy in my hands. I think a lot of people feel that way.

[Brian]

Originally Posted by BobR

Doesn't O'Reilly also offer some of it's books online anyway? I think this might not (I hope) damage the effort vs Authors Guild because as much as I like ebooks, if it's a manual or reference book or tech book I really like having a paper copy in my hands. I think a lot of people feel that way.

Bob,

Yes, it's called the Safari Bookshelf. I agree with you that the majority of people who rely on these books for reference will purchase paper copies. *However*, based on the newsfeeds, PubSub searches, and other searches that I subscribe to in order to track the popularity of ebooks, I have observed a large number of social bookmarks and links to electronic copies of pirated O'Reilly books. This anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that they are among the most pirated series of technical books. Due to the widespread availability of complete pirated copies in electronic form, I don't think this hack is as much of a problems but it still raises concerns for publishers and authors.

[Bob Russell]

Another positive indicator is that we see great success for authors like Scott who did EarthCore. Giving away his book in audio form helped with sales. Also Cory Doctorow is, of course, giving away his novels and I think (but am not sure) that he's doing great with sales also. I'm sure there are more examples.

But on the other hand, O'Reilly has such a great reputation that it's not like they are unknown and desperate for ways to show people they exist.

Personally, I do agree that as electronic forms of documents get easier to handle and read, we'll need to have some reasonable way to manage selling and control of distribution.

I heard that the recording industry recently indicated that they are not in favor of watermarking to handle illegal mass distribution. At first I thought it was a generous and amazing comment. Then I realized it was probably not that they didn't want to impose a watermark on the content, but that they either didn't think it would be helpful in court, or even more likely that they want more control than that. They refuse to talk about the lesser controls of watermark when they are really after tight usage controls. Watermarks are about who the content goes to. DRM is about how, when, where, who and why you are using the content. DRM is a much much more controlling and restricting way of handling content, and if the recording industry can charge you every time you listen, or for every device you put it on, all the better in their eyes because it generates more revenue. Especially if they can sell limited access to content at prices similar to full ownership, because the public seems to naively accept it for now, and then the precedent will be set.

Okay, off my soapbox, but I do really hope that OReilly continues to be a big success, both with the great books and also with the generous attitude towards making the content available. In my mind, they are one of the heroes in the publishing industry.

[rmeister0]

What the music industry wants - and the film and television industry even more so - is a pay per play model rather than a perpetual ownership model. At the very least, if they can convert to a subscription model in the Napster vein, it works out best for the record labels because a) they get a recurring revenue stream, and b) they don't have to pay royalties to recording artists on an auditible "per sold" model.

[Laurens]

Originally Posted by rmeister0

What the music industry wants - and the film and television industry even more so - is a pay per play model rather than a perpetual ownership model. At the very least, if they can convert to a subscription model in the Napster vein, it works out best for the record labels because a) they get a recurring revenue stream, and b) they don't have to pay royalties to recording artists on an auditible "per sold" model.

Hm... how is this business model not auditable? Companies have to account for their revenue, don't they?

[Brian]

It appears that this "hack" is just a function of how Google Book Search works. Google Book Search relies on books submitted in accordance with the Google Books Partner Program, where publishers can control the page view restrictions (20 to 100 percent), or turn off complete page views entirely and just allow short snippets.

It appears that Steve Rubel was basing his assumption of finding a hack or loophole in the system on O'Reilly's rather high percentage of how much of the book can be displayed before further page views are blocked.

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Watch demystifies Steve's hack here.

Steve Rubel thinks he's "hacked" Google Book Search, as he covers in his Read Most of O'Reilly's Hacks Books for Free Using Google post. In reality, I think he's just finding that Google Book Search operates exactly the way it is supposed to operate, to show you a percentage of a book that a publisher itself has allowed you to view online.

I think if O'Reilly perceived this as an issue, they'd adjust their page view restrictions accordingly.

[anh3nam]

Thanks ! share for me

[hexiaohuihexiaoh]

hello,my name is 贺晓辉,I have a problem after I have read the book "Googlehack"，I can not make the hack run，for example,hack20(Google guide cooking)，after I run the cgi,the information shown as follow：
Software error:
Service description 'file:http://192.168.1.100/cgi-bin/GoogleSearch.wsdl' can't be loaded: 404 File `http:\\192.168.1.100\cgi-bin\GoogleSearch.wsdl' does not exist
REF(0x1821074)
for 2 days，I can't explain why,and I am driven mad%>_<% ,so,please help me.
by the way,I am now in china,we can contact as follows:
QQ:314269128
mobilephoto：(0086)15101122371
or exchange opinion here,I will be back every one or two days!
hoping someone can solve my problems,thanks!

[Gaurnim]

Hello hexiaohuihexiaoh,

If you have a problem with the content of a book from O'Reilly, I suggest that you contact them about it.

If you're lucky, somebody from here might be able to help you, but you have much greater chance of finding help at O'Reilly's.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by hexiaohuihexiaoh

hello,my name is 贺晓辉,I have a problem after I have read the book "Googlehack"，I can not make the hack run，for example,hack20(Google guide cooking)，after I run the cgi,the information shown as follow：
Software error:
Service description 'file:http://192.168.1.100/cgi-bin/GoogleSearch.wsdl' can't be loaded: 404 File `http:\\192.168.1.100\cgi-bin\GoogleSearch.wsdl' does not exist
REF(0x1821074)
for 2 days，I can't explain why,and I am driven mad%>_<% ,so,please help me.
by the way,I am now in china,we can contact as follows:
QQ:314269128
mobilephoto：(0086)15101122371
or exchange opinion here,I will be back every one or two days!
hoping someone can solve my problems,thanks!

Many things change over time. When Brian first posted this over three (3) years ago Google was different from the Google of today. The book was right when it was published and most likely you did nothing wrong. It is just that the conditions have changed. Perhaps you could use Google to search for an update for Google Hack 20.

PS: Please don't drive yourself mad.