Google kicks off magazine project

Google has begun a project to digitise thousands of magazines, with the company unveiling a deal with several publishers to begin adding magazine articles to its Book Search service.

The magazine articles will be archived and indexed in the same format as the rest of Google's book search collection. Magazine articles will be displayed alongside all book results.

"Over time, as we scan more articles, you'll see more and more magazines appear in Google Book Search results," explained Google engineer Dave Foulser.

"Eventually, we'll also begin blending magazine results into our main Google.com search results, so you may begin finding magazines you didn't even know you were looking for."

The company hopes that the project will further add to its Book Search program. The company kicked off Book Search in 2006 with the goal of building a colossal digital archive of printed books. That effort was hampered for years, however, by a series of legal wrangling with publishers, which was only recently settled.

The company now hopes to pick up its efforts, aided by the new magazine archive.