HarperCollins Will Create a Searchable Digital Library

NYTimes

By EDWARD WYATT
Published: December 13, 2005

In the latest move in the battle between publishers and search engines, HarperCollins Publishers said yesterday it would create its own digital library of all of its book and audio content and make it searchable by consumers on the Internet. Web users will be able to search the HarperCollins archive via search engines like Google and Yahoo or the specialized programs of retailers like Amazon.com.

The move is intended to allow HarperCollins, a unit of the News Corporation, to maintain control over digital content rather than cede that control to other companies, Jane Friedman, chief executive, said.

Rather than give copies of books to search services like Google for those companies to scan as it currently does, HarperCollins would keep the material on its own computers, and users would be pointed there by the search engine, Ms. Friedman said. The company expects to have at least part of the service operating by the middle of next year. . . .