May 24 2008
Microsoft Discontinues Live Search Program
Microsoft scanned in, digitized, and indexed 750,000 books and 80 million scholarly articles for its “Live Search” program which is similar to Google Booksearch. Microsoft decided to terminate the program and provide the digital copies of books scanned to the publishers. Microsoft will now rely on crawling the content repositories of other sites (I wonder if that includes Google Booksearch) in order to provide search results to those who might use its search portal.
Whether Microsoft discontinued this effort as a result of the resistance the traditional publishing houses are putting forth or whether it decided to cede this ground to Google, it is unclear.
Via CNET
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[...] announced last week that it would be discontinuing its Live Search program. Microsoft scanned in, digitized, and [...]