Publishers are starting to report an uptick in sales from Google Inc.'s online programme that lets readers peek inside books, two years after the launch of its controversial plan to digitally scan everything in print.
Google has been enlisting publishers to voluntarily submit their books so that web searchers can more easily find titles related to their interests, but some fear the project could lead to piracy or exploitation of their copyrighted content.
"Google Book Search has helped us turn searchers into consumers," said Colleen Scollans, the director of online sales for Oxford University Press.
She declined to provide specific figures, but said that sales growth has been "significant". Mr Scollans estimated that 1 million customers have viewed 12,000 Oxford titles using the Google programme.
Google does not release data on how many people are using the service, how many books have been scanned or how many searchers have clicked through to buy books.
Book search results from Google provide short page snippets and links to buy the books from online retailers or directly from publishers.
Some of the same publishers participating in the programme have also united to file a lawsuit against Google alleging copyright violation over a separate plan by the web search leader to digitise the world's libraries.
Others, including News Corp.'s HarperCollins, are building their own digital repositories.
Specialty publisher Springer Science + Business reported sales growth of its backlist catalogue using Google Book Search, with 99 per cent of the 30,000 titles it has in the programme getting viewed, including many published before 1992.
"We suspect that Google really helps us sell more books," said Kim Zwollo, Springer's global director of special licensing, declining to provide specific figures because the company is privately owned.
Others, including Penguin, have been less encouraged by the results and have found greater success from other partnerships.
"Our experience has been that the revenue generated from Google has been pretty modest, whereas the Amazon program has generated more book sales," Penguin chief executive officer John Makinson told Reuters at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week.
Amazon.com's search tool also allows users to scan the contents of books and browse sample pages. For Penguin's books included in the US "Search Inside" programme, sales have increased by seven per cent.
Because of the success, Pearson-owned Penguin extended the relationship to Amazon's UK site earlier last week.
Historical warfare publisher Osprey is reaping the benefits of using both Google and Amazon to boost sales.
"When we looked at the first six months of stats, we saw that 30 per cent of Google Book Search clicks went directly to our site, while roughly 40 per cent went to Amazon," said William Shepherd, Osprey's managing director.
"Our sales through the Web are steadily increasing in proportion to our total sales, and we're confident that Google Book Search will accelerate this growth."
Walter de ruyter/Mouton De Gruyter, a German publisher, said its encyclopaedia of fairy tales has been viewed 471 times since appearing in the programme, with 44 per cent of them clicking on the "buy this book" Google link.
One of its many scientific titles, Principles of Visual Anthropology, has seen about one-quarter of the 1,206 views click on "buy this book".
Arty coffee-table book publisher teNeues said its online sales have doubled over the past year, attributable primarily to a fresh marketing campaign and inclusion in Google's book search, chief executive officer Hendrik teNeues said.