Netflix of Books? BookSwim aims to be 'Netflix' of books with a monthly subscription, 3 book-at-a-time with free postage. They are not the first, BooksFree offers a wide selection of 'beach books' and JiggerBug rents a wide audio book selection. Google tried it in 2005, and nearly got burned to the ground. Could libraries and local used book stores be marginalized (though never destroyed) as the local video rental store? Will Border's become the same struggling dinosaur Blockbuster has turned out to be?
posted by MiltonRandKalman on May 15, 2007 - 71 comments

Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance. When you think about it, love is just another search problem. And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance™ is our solution. You might want to start by browsing a few popular profiles, here, here, or here. Enjoy.
posted by nearo on Apr 1, 2006 - 28 comments

Google maps is still in beta form and still limited to the US. One potentially useful feature is the option to search for suppliers of a particular service. For example searching for Pizza in Chicago brings up a map showing pizza outlets in central Chicago.

Searching for an Asshole, Dickhead, or even Institutionalized economic repression, however, bring up some rather more unusual results. Links possibly NSFW. Via memepool.
posted by bap98189 on Feb 17, 2005 - 35 comments

Google to team up with the University of Michigan and Harvard University to make their extensive libraries available online. According to the agreement, Google will make available all books in the public domain; the universities can put the material to whatever use they see fit. Others have made attempts before, but none with the sheer might of Google. [via /.]
posted by Civil_Disobedient on Dec 14, 2004 - 71 comments

Sorry Matt, you can't post in this thread. Google changes its Adsense agreement so that anyone participating in the program is barred from talking about the program. First rule of Adsense, there is no Adsense.
posted by Mick on Oct 3, 2003 - 30 comments