Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2004 Issue
Search Engines: A Growing Force in Books
Abe is not a search engine but they have more books than anyone else and lightning fast searches.
The starkest differences are actually in the elapsed time it takes to conduct searches. In an impatient world, with often slow internet connections, the ability to zoom through searches in a few seconds is very important. After all, most searches are speculative. What does one thing cost versus another? Is a book common? How many copies are listed? For this ABE is simply the outstanding choice. They are the book site on steroids. Among the search engines AddAll is reasonably quick and offers a variety of listings across the book selling universe. It’s tough to find a niche for which Bookfinder is the clear winner. Other people are holding the high ground at the moment. UsedBookSearch finds the most matches but it takes more time.
In the electronic world of listing sites and search engines the only constant is change so if Bookfinder chooses to revamp their software they can certainly do it. And it is also possible that their search engine is achieving other less apparent objectives and so is successful for its owners.
One wildcard is Google that is messing around in the world of books. They recently created a search feature we have on this site – try it out on the main home page or, if you are a member, also on your personal home page. They now index all of AE’s past articles and provide an instant sort for anyone looking to run keyword searches across our full editorial display going back to day one. If these folks decide to try to let casual searchers on the net directly search book seller inventories this might turn the entire present structure on its ear. But for that to happen thousands of sellers who list on the major listing sites would have to have their inventories up on their own servers and of course Google would have to want to do it. Alternatively, if Google searches begin to penetrate sites such as ABE there might be pandemonium in this as well.
So what we can say is that change, long the most distant cousin many times removed in the book business, is now sitting in the driver’s seat and will be for many years to come. Efficiency, an absolute stranger in the world of books, daily now beats on the paper thin partitions that separate the book dealers of the old school from the wild electronic world and daily converts a few more dealers and a handful of collectors to its enticing potential. The specialized search engines seem to be on the rise but may yet prove to be a passing fancy as they themselves live in the shadow of Google that continues to bring remarkable innovation to searching and is quickly emerging as one of the most valuable companies in history. Google’s ability to directly search book dealer inventories may yet undermine the appeal of both the aggregated listing sites and the specialized search engines. Logically the listing sites will develop proprietary features that may create competitive advantage and insulate them from duplication and competition.
There is a lot at stake but regardless of who prevails the book purchaser is the big winner for an efficient market will force material to be priced at increasingly visible market rates while transaction costs decline. We can all be grateful for the innovations the search engines have brought but, like sharks, to live they must continue to move. We are no where near optimum performance yet so we’ll see many changes in the future. And of course we all need to remember: the future is now.
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