Google: Building a Better Yesterday

History junkies like me will be happy to hear that Google now offers a news archive search. Go to Google news, and choose “news archive search.” Or click here.

First off, I found a concise account of the leadership convention that chose John Diefenbaker. It was, apparently, the first Canadian leadership convention to be televised. It also notes that Diefenbaker refused to campaign for the position. Times have changed in this regard, and not for the better.

Unfortunately, the only archive Google has that seems to offer free access sans subscription is Time magazine.

This follows very quickly the launch of Google’s online book search, also fantastically useful for research. It essentially automatically indexes all the books in all the libraries included—necessarily, mind, only books that are already out of copyright. The potential here is mind-boggling.

I know it is fashionable these days to be suspicious of Google and to scoff at their business plan, but I think they’re both brilliant and a good bunch. Any comparison with Microsoft is off the mark: Microsoft’s existence has been a net drag on human progress. Google’s existence has been a clear net boon to date. Consider what has been opened up to researchers of all kinds in just the last week or so. Microsoft tried at all times to approach a monopoly. Google is probably incapable, by the nature of its core business, of doing the same: any attempt to restrict its searches to those who pay or play ball with them weakens their product against all opposition.