From the New York Times: "Google, the operator of the world's most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web. "It may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global virtual library. But the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library is a major stride in an ambitious Internet effort by various parties. The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections. " Does anyone else see the potential and intelligence in this? Creating a vast library of millions of books at anyones fingertips, this should fuel research projects and overall progress like never before. And isn't this exactly what we all hoped the Internet would become? Its the information superhighway, seriously starting to evolve into something more than just ecommerce, email, and blogs. Personally I think the notion that it may take a decade to finish is a little dissapointing, but I really don't believe the figure either. I would say in two years, I'll be able to search for 1800 manuscripts. And I for one, can't wait.