Magazines + Google = Neato

December 9, 2008 9:15 PM

New York Magazine?Popular Science? The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists? Ebony? Every issue, every page, back into the mists of history.

No kidding. I'm not usually one to go all Pepsi Blue with the latest bit of Goo from the Googleplex, but this is pretty cool. Extra whizbang points for the way they integrate Google maps, with pins where locations are mentioned in the magazine (at least for some of them). Too much information, not enough time. [via]

posted by stavrosthewonderchicken (46 comments total)

Oooh, let's all read about House of the future: YOUR PLEASURE DOME.
posted by delmoi at 9:28 PM on December 9, 2008

Heh.
posted by delmoi at 9:32 PM on December 9, 2008

I love the progression of covers for the Bulletin. Some graphic designer was sick of that damn clock.
posted by smackfu at 9:39 PM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Official Google announcement and more info.
posted by stbalbach at 9:41 PM on December 9, 2008

Wow, Tina Brown was one of the 100 smartest new yorkers in 1995. Along with Henry Kissenger and Maddona, "multimedia empresario" Judith Regan, Neo-con progenator Norman Podhoretz _{with a two page spread.}

They seem to be using a strange definition of "smart" here.
posted by delmoi at 9:43 PM on December 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Oh MAN, the '63 models from Detroit are going to be AWESOME. Thanks, Popular Science!
posted by LastOfHisKind at 9:59 PM on December 9, 2008

The Popular Science archive is going to blow my mind. The Time magazine archive has been very useful to me.

A while back the thought occurred to me that if the past was made freely available -- eg. past TV shows on youtube, past newspapers online, past movies via netflix, etc etc, today's content creators are going to find themselves increasingly fucked WRT competing for my entertainment input bandwidth.

Around the 5th grade my grandmother gave us a big-ass box of National Geographics, ca. 1932 to 1975. Not having TV at the time, I devoured them.

This effort, plus a better book reader device -- Apple, are you there? -- is going to eventually change the world as we know it.
posted by troy at 9:59 PM on December 9, 2008

Yikes

I love the ads too. Apparently Toshiba's new VHS is going to be just as good as their Beta!
posted by smackfu at 10:01 PM on December 9, 2008

This is fantastic!

I have the DVD set that Rolling Stone put out of every page of every issue as well and I cant recommend it enough.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:19 PM on December 9, 2008

I'm going to be flipping through those 60's NY Mag's for a while.
posted by Taargus Taargus at 12:04 AM on December 10, 2008

Yes!

Popular Science magazine had a huge impact on me as a child. It fostered in me a legitimate interest in basic science with a hopeful notion that future technology would improve our lives.

I remember reading this article when I was 10. Without sarcasm, I tell you it had a MAJOR impact on me.

No doubt it has led, 36 years later, to this kind of behavior.

I remember finally getting my hands on some soy-based hot dogs. I think they were Loma Linda brand, but I'm not positive. They came in a steel can, seven hot dogs packed in brine, in a six-around-one vertical conformation. You can still get soy dogs, but now I only see them in the refrigerated section packaged in thin, vacuum-packed plastic.

I don't know if it was my anticipation from reading the Popular Science article, or that the brine was concentrated with synthetic flavorings to compensate for the intrinsic blandness of soy, but I tell you that those were the best hot dogs I've ever had in my life!

It was at a point in my life where Space Food Sticks were off the market, and they were for kids, anyway. But this new soy stuff, this was grown-up food, high tech and synthetic.

I want that moment back!
posted by Tube at 12:31 AM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Every issue, every page, back into the mists of history."

Except the April 1968 issue of Ebony that I was actually interested in. Wah!
posted by jpburns at 3:56 AM on December 10, 2008

There are a number of missing issues of several of the magazines.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:59 AM on December 10, 2008

Goddamn those Google bastards.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:04 AM on December 10, 2008

I am unable to find a list of all available titles.

In addition to the ones mentioned in the FPP, I also see Jet, Cincinnati, Runners World, Men's—and Women's—Health, Cruising World, CIO, Ebony Jr., Negro Digest, Best Life, Organic Gardening, Vegetarian Times, Baseball Digest, Black World, Maximum PC, Bicycling, Cincinnati Wedding, Cruise Travel, Prevention, and American Cowboy.

I found these titles by refreshing the main books page. Is there an index somewhere that I'm missing?
posted by spacely_sprocket at 4:28 AM on December 10, 2008

Whoa!
posted by OmieWise at 4:46 AM on December 10, 2008

You can search for titles.

My wife's magazine, Atlanta Magazine, has the last 5 years or so there (while she was the editor).
posted by jpburns at 4:47 AM on December 10, 2008

Argh, too much information. Quick, someone start a blog and post all of the magazine articles that I would find interesting. Okay, thanks.
posted by trueluk at 6:49 AM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've been messing around in these archives for the past day or so. The most fun part for me has been seeing what these magazines were looking like the month I was born and being like "omg, I really am old!" So many liquor ads! I've been trolling through them for old Donald Barthelme mentions and found this cool review of an Edward Gorey book, such fun. Thanks for this post.
posted by jessamyn at 7:00 AM on December 10, 2008

Wow, just wow. Most of these magazines are probably available at a larger library on micro-film but having them full text searchable, in color and instantly accessible is amazing. But why are we delegating so much of the responsibility for our society's information to one for-profit company?
posted by Chrishartley at 7:00 AM on December 10, 2008

"It is unquestionably the future, and you would have crashed your stupid flying car anyway."
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:10 AM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

But why are we delegating so much of the responsibility for our society's information to one for-profit company?

No one stopped anyone else from doing this.
posted by smackfu at 7:19 AM on December 10, 2008

I'm terribly disappointed that The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists is a magazine. A name like that should be given to something significantly more awesome.
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 7:20 AM on December 10, 2008

Well, actually that might not be true. Clearly the magazines have copyright claims, and probably the only way they can be put up like this is to get a cut of the advertising revenue.
posted by smackfu at 7:21 AM on December 10, 2008

Wow! New York Magazine Competition! And those Kyle Baker "Bad Publicity" comics! Heck, I'm gonna read my way backwards through childhood and get the jokes this time!
posted by whuppy at 7:27 AM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I especially like how they fake the shadowing of the middle crease in 2-up view. Sweet!
Transparent PNG FTW
posted by Jeremy at 8:11 AM on December 10, 2008

Oh MAN, the '63 models from Detroit are going to be AWESOME. Thanks, Popular Science!

Summing up the new '63s: Longer, Lower, Wider. That'll show those pesky Commies who rules the world!
posted by tommasz at 8:38 AM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You are missing Popular Mechanics. Does anyone have a full list of all magazines google is hosting? I don't see one in their announcement.
posted by fings at 9:43 AM on December 10, 2008

RadioShack catalogs from the sixties
posted by hortense at 9:46 AM on December 10, 2008

Say what you want, but the glasses, the yellow blouse, the eating-your-head-fro...you just can't mess with the 70's for pure glam. My mom had those exact glasses.
posted by cashman at 10:09 AM on December 10, 2008

The Puff Daddy Nobody Knows.
posted by cashman at 10:20 AM on December 10, 2008

The Puff Daddy Nobody Knows.

I don't know which to OMG about first, that hilarious photo or the sidebar ad telling me

Dirty Guy Parts?
Clean Him Up With the Axe Detailer Shower Tool.
posted by jessamyn at 10:25 AM on December 10, 2008

Answering my own question, this German blogpost has a list of the magazines currently indexed by Google.

• The Alcalde
  
• American Cowboy
  
• Atlanta Magazine
  
• Baseball Digest
  
• Better Nutrition
  
• Black Belt
  
• Black World/Negro Digest
  
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
  
• Cincinnati Magazine
  
• CIO Magazine
  
• Cruise Travel
  
• Dwell
  
• Ebony
• Indianapolis Monthly
  
• Jet
  
• Liberty Magazine
  
• Men's Health
  
• Mother Jones Magazine
  
• New York Magazine
  
• Popular Mechanics
  
• Popular Science
  
• Prevention
• Runner's World
  
• Vegetarian Times
  
• Women's Health
  

posted by fings at 10:27 AM on December 10, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

I am looking forward to the exhaustive zine archive. Cometbus and Frighten The Horses, online at last!
posted by smartyboots at 10:35 AM on December 10, 2008

Some more I found by hitting "refresh" at books.google.com:

Best Life
Bicycling
Building Systems
Ebony, Jr
Liberty
Log Home Living
Mac Life
Maximum PC
Organic Gardening
Timber Homes Living/Timber Frame Homes
posted by fings at 10:39 AM on December 10, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Interesting that some of these even have the December 2008 issue available, like Dwell.
posted by smackfu at 10:43 AM on December 10, 2008

the superlative things magazine blog (MeFi's own, but my username recall is on strike right now) links to 10 Easy Ways to Get 'That Extra Room' in Popular Science, April 1948.

I don't know if I have room left in my heart for anything else after that.
posted by carbide at 12:14 PM on December 10, 2008

It seems like every other issue of New York Magazine is missing. That's a strange pattern.
posted by svenni at 12:18 PM on December 10, 2008

How about paying the writers who wrote for those magazines and only gave them North American rights, not digital ones?
posted by Maias at 1:23 PM on December 10, 2008

Cool!

Toward the end of the Seventies you will no longer have to go through grueling years of astronaut training if you want to go into orbit. A reusable space shuttle will take you there in the comfort of an airliner.

Just as in a commercial jet, professional flying will be required only in the cockpit. In the rear, it will be "coffee, tea, or milk," but you may have to share the accomodations with some high-priority cargo or laboratory equipment.

~ Dr. Wernher von Braun
posted by brundlefly at 1:27 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Two years worth of Bicycling? Ride your first century 3x, Get lean and fast! 4x, Newest Wonderbikes! 4x, repeat....
posted by fixedgear at 1:34 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I really hope they do Mondo 2000.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:56 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This rules.

Now people can make digital collages from images digitally cut out of digital copies of magazines!

I can't wait for the future.
posted by defenestration at 2:36 PM on December 10, 2008

Except the April 1968 issue of Ebony that I was actually interested in. Wah!

I've been looking for a 1958 Ebony for two years. The whole 50s didn't make this archive.....yet, I hope.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:02 PM on December 10, 2008

This is SO fabulous. The internets just got a whole lot better. It works!

Thanks for the heads up, stav.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:26 PM on December 10, 2008

New York Magazine crossworddzzzzzzz please!!
posted by interweber at 1:10 PM on December 11, 2008