Microsoft releasing book search in beta

Microsoft is releasing Live Search Books, its competitor to Google Book Search, in beta on Wednesday.

The book search engine performs keyword searches for books that have been scanned as part of Microsoft’s book scanning project, in the same way that Windows Live Search searches the Internet, said Danielle Tiedt, the general manager of Live Search Selection for Microsoft.

Initially, the Live Search Books database will be searchable from the book search engine’s beta home page, or as a category on the main Windows Live Search page–a method referred to as vertical search. Once the tool is out of beta, Microsoft plans to incorporate all of the scanned publications into its general Internet search engine. The company hopes to do this in the next six months, according to Tiedt.

“As we move out of beta, what you will see is that book content integrated with the Web content (search results on Windows Live Search). What we are focusing more of our efforts on for live searching is integrating all of those content types together to give you the most relevant results. Sometimes the most relevant will be from books. If, for example, it’s a search on historical content, chances are the most authoritative content may be found in a books,” said Tiedt.

Full article: CNET News.com