HP One-Ups Google on Books

(MoneyWatch)  I hadn't seen this earlier in the week, but it is pretty significant that HP is working with the University of Michigan to scan out-of-print books from the college libraries and make them available. And the interesting thing is that apparently HP paid close attention to Google's efforts on the Google Books front and is systematically finding a better way to do the same thing, as the former is managing to find solid revenue opportunities, meld the worlds of print and digital publication, and even manage to do this in such a way that it can't get sued.

The HP service is called BookPrep and it heavily relies on the company's extensive experience in commercial imaging. According to the company description, it's a cloud service (Isn't everything, these days?) that uses both high resolution photography to acquire the book page images and software that automates cleaning up the images and then producing books though such steps as sharpening them, improving color, and generating covers. Yup, print books. The idea is that people will pay for books they want, and HP and U of M might as well produce them. Consumers and academics can already purchase copies through a variety of channels, including book stores and online sellers like Amazon. Here are some of the ways that HP was learned Google's lessons and already surpassed them:

• HP recognizes that the types of academic books you'd find in a big college library might be ones that scholars might actually want a copy of, not simply peruse online.
• HP has been working on the entire BookPrep system for more than a year, suggesting that it has had time to knock the sharp corners off the business processes and get them to work.
• Not only can it provided printed copies, but clearly the material could be offered online as well, either free or through an ?€"ad-supported site, using, you could argue, Google as an ad delivery mechanism.
• Because it is focusing on out-of-print and public domain titles, HP gets to avoid the possibility of being like Google and being sued in a huge, messy case and of having a judge send the suit settlement back to the drawing board.
• Not only does HP get to do all this, but it's working with a major partner of Google in its books business.

In other words, the company is neatly walking down the trail that Google nicely cleared for it. It's a neat bit of work, and you have to wonder whether Xerox or another company strong in imaging technology could do the same thing. Suddenly, Google's exclusive coup turns into nothing more than enabling competitors to get to market even faster than it can do.

Image via stock.xchng user lusi, site standard license.