Searchable Printable Downloadable & Pocket-Sized Books Google Style

There are many wonderful medical websites that can be found online, and these types of sites can help you find all kinds of great health information whether it is pregnancy information you are seeking or articles and facts about type 1 diabetes.
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The masterminds behind Google have been working on the concept of putting books online and searching them for over ten years now - since before Google began. When I was at UofM with Larry Page, I remember him talking about wanting to put the entire Library of Congress online. Through Google, he's gradually been developing partnerships with universities, publishers and other corporations to make this happen, ending for a result that allows people to download books online.

Slashdot discussed this today, calling what Google wants to do as creating an "iPod/iTunes for Books". That would be the next level with a handheld hardware gizmo. The Times Online (UK) says "Google plots e-books coup." Yeah, right. I doubt they're trying to corner the market in this one - they just want to be the first ones to do it. (And they will do it - just give it time.)

Google's not the only group to come up with this concept. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive (who also knows Larry through some other UofM people in a roundabout Silicon Valley two degrees way), created theBookmobile that is a vehicle that can print books in the public domain. These are books that are already out of copyright and are online like Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately the Bookmobile itself is out of print now, but the link above explains how to build one yourself.