Google gets even closer to the news industry by launching a service to search newspapers archives dating back to the 1700s, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.
Google offers robust document scanning capabilities, and I fear it may in the future wish to gain some modicum of control over publishing rights for a newspaper’s archives in exchange. A newspaper’s archives, according to the Long Tail theory that’s all the rage these days, can be one of its greatest assets. So proceed with caution!
[Via Romenesko]
