Google's place as a personal librarian

To all those Google users out there -- how do you feel about the web search giant becoming your personal librarian? In fact, the company is already heeding this call for many millions of Google users all across the globe these days (and nights). This blog entry over at ZDNet discusses a quote from Google co-founder Larry Page, who said this at the introduction of the "Google Books" project that aimed to scan every possible book into digital format: "Even before we started Google, we dreamed of making the incredible breadth of information that librarians so lovingly organize searchable online."

Well, although Google has run into some copyright issues in its attempt to scan entries libraries into its collective -- the Google collective -- it's still taking the place of a librarian of sorts. Most people on the Internet now have used Google and many use the myriad services daily to make their lives easier and more productive. But, while all that activity is happening, Google is building an immense "card catalog" of marketable and identifiable information -- probably the largest repository in human history (and getting bigger).

What is the search giant doing with all that information? Probably trying to figure out how to make all of it useful for its customers as well as its advertising partners. After all, Google's advertising model works -- to the tune of billions of dollars in revenue per quarter. Although there are many book publishers and publishing houses that see a threat from Google making the contents of hard work available for free online, the new age of open information access for all has the name of Google -- not the local library. If you can check out most books for free from a local library, what makes Google different -- is it not taking the place of a "virtual librarian?"