Competition for Amazon's "Search Inside" coming?

From May's BISG Bulletin, released today:


Standardizing the Discovery of Books Online

Proof of concept phase will get underway shortly.

Representatives of more than 40 leading companies including Harper Collins,
Random House, Ingram, Google, Barnes & Noble, Microsoft, and Bowker have
been at work in BISG's Digital Standards Committee developing ways to
standardize how book content is discovered online.

The group, chaired by Leslie Hulse of HarperCollins, has been at work on a
standard that encourages the search, discovery, and retrieval of online
book content and that also allows publishers to manage the quality and
availability of that content. Work is nearing completion on a set of HTTP
transactions between a publisher s digital archive and the websites of
syndication partners such as booksellers and search engines.

BISG's Board of Directors approved the approach and the technical
specification at its meeting on May 8. Before the standard is published
later in the summer, there will be a proof of concept phase in which the
transactions will be tested by a group of volunteer companies.

You will be hearing more about the work and the standard in the next few
months. In the meantime, if you would like more information about the
standard or would like to sign up as a member of the Digital Standards
Committee, please contact Michael Healy in the BISG office by emailing
michael-xAHIewsI/[email protected]

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