In nod to Google, Microsoft plans online book searches

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. is diving into the business of offering online searches of books and other writings, and says its approach aims to avoid the legal tussles met by rival Google Inc.

The software giant said yesterday that it will sidestep hot-button copyright issues for now by focusing on books, academic materials, and other publications in the public domain.

Initially, Microsoft plans to work with an industry organization called the Open Content Alliance to let users search about 150,000 pieces of published material. A test version of the product is promised for next year.

The alliance, whose participants also include top Internet portal Yahoo Inc., is working to make books and other offline content available online without angering publishers and authors.

Danielle Tiedt, a general manager of search content acquisition with Microsoft's MSN online unit, said the company also is working with publishers and libraries on ways to eventually make more copyright material available for online searches.

She said Microsoft is looking at several options, including models where users would be charged to access the content.

Microsoft said it has no plans now to have targeted ads located in the search results, but the company cautioned that it was still working out the details of its business model.

''I think about the 150,000 books as a test," Tiedt said.

Rival Google has taken a markedly different approach, with plans to index millions of copyright books from three major university libraries -- Harvard, Stanford, and Michigan -- unless the copyright holder notifies the company which volumes should be excluded. The Association of American Publishers, representing five publishers, and the Authors Guild, which includes about 8,000 writers, have both sued the search engine giant over the plans.

Google has defended the effort as necessary to its goal of helping people find information -- and insists that its scanning effort is protected under fair-use law because of restrictions placed on how much of any single book could be read.

Microsoft acknowledges it is far behind Google. Tiedt said she expects it will take years to solidify the MSN product.