Google Print's Hidden Goldmine

OK, I'm going to let something out of the bag that I should probably just shut up and keep to myself , but being the giving guy that I am, I'm going go ahead and blab anyway.

If you're an author/publisher/infoproduct creator, you can thank me later, because I found a little tidbit within a Google Q&A page that just might have you drooling all over yourself.

Listen up!

There's been a lot of buzz in the news lately about how Google is now mixing in with their normal search results, links to scanned book pages that are relevant to the search.

Here's an example where the search query was mastering digital photography.

Now, not only is this a great feature for everyday users of Google, but Google is also opening participation in this feature to publishers who are willing to send them books that they can scan into their database. The benefit to the publisher is incredible exposure to their book when someone does a keyword search that matches the relevance of their book.  

As a soon-to-be ebook publisher, I was curious about whether they would let me add my ebook products, in addition to my print books.

After some searching, here's a Q&A item I discovered.

We're currently concentrating on scanning hardcopy books, but are working on accepting digital file formats such as PDF soon.

Did you catch that? Not yet, but soon!

In other words, if you've written an ebook on windsurfing and allowed Google to add some of the content of your ebook to their database, whenever someone does a search for windsurfing, in addition to the normal search results, Google will also provide a link to your book's reviewable content (obviously, not every page in your ebook will be reviewable, only enough to provide an overall taste).

Talk about an opportunity for some free, powerful exposure!

I'll personally be taking advantage of this service for my ebooks once the service is opened up to them. In the meantime, my print publisher will be getting an email from me today asking that they do this with my print books. Especially now, while this service is still in its ground floor stage (very few participants so far). 

On a side note, I think that product manufacturers would be doing their customers a big favor if they all sent Google copies of all their products' user manuals/guides for indexing.

Think about it, we all own all sorts of stuff (cellphones, webcams, printers, cars, microwaves, MP3 players), some very complex to use. Ironically, however, how many of us also keep the owners manual handy, if at all?

Wouldn't it be great to just type the name/model number of your product into Google and be instantly presented with an online version of the user's manual?

I love this idea, if I do say so myself!