Google Catalogs Beta

Our Favourite Search Engine Just Got Better

Just when you thought Google was great, it just got better. Google has become infamous by now, after all even an evolt.org lurker would know about Google after searching thelist archives. A search on Google is normally the first suggestion from people i have spoken to, and its popularity is equally evident on thelist and from Cable TV programs such as The Screen Savers on TechTv.

In an attempt to broaden their search, Google has made an attempt to catalog "catalogs". Although there is no facility for purchase from Google, full print catalogs from cover pages to inside pages can be viewed and enlarged to show fairly detailed images of the selected catalogs' pages. Also included are the company's contact info such as name, phone number, URL, etc.

Seems like a good move on their part, although some of the drawbacks can include lengthy download times for people who do not use broadband connections (actually mentioned in their help) — such as the largest detailed image after drilling down a few pages 178kb, and also the fact that the catalogs are actually only images and not text.

What is also neat is the fact that there are over 600 catalogs listed on the site to peruse and search. It's free for catalog publishers to sign up at the moment, but we can expect that this service will acquire some kind of charge at some point in time, as most search engines have done.

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