Google adds magazines into the mix

MAGAZINES ARE an important form of media, as we're sure you'll agree considering your chosen reading for today, yet there are few online magazine archives, a problem that Google is set to remedy.

Yesterday the search giant announced its initiative to help bring more magazine archives as well as current magazines online, partnering with publishers in order to digitise many articles.

There will be a very wide range of periodicals covered, according to Google, including such classics as Popular Science, New York Magazine and - for you science fans - the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Explore publications to rediscover historical interviews, do-it-yourself articles, and even a piece on canine eyewear. In many cases, these magazines aren't just history as history, but present history as perspective, a way of understanding.

You can search for these magazines online through Google's Book Search service. Google says to try queries such as 'hollywood brat pack' or 'world's most challenging crossword' and you'll find magazine articles alongside book results. Although all results will appear together, the magazine articles are tagged as such, with the keyword "Magazine" on the search result items.

As with Google's book search, over time more and more magazines will be added to the service with an eventual aim to add magazine results into the main Google.com search results.

We're not sure if this is a great idea, yet it could come up with magazines that you didn't even know you were looking for. For now at least you can restrict your search to magazines Google has scanned by using Google's advanced search.

Google says that bringing more magazines online is one more important step toward its long-standing goal of providing access to all the world's information. µ

L'Inq
Google