Google takes another step in its desire to index human knowledge. The Internet giant has announced on its official blog its intention to digitize, index and make available to all Internet users all the written press of the last 200 years. All? As much as they can, since they need to sign agreements with the different companies that own the headers.
"For more than 200 years, events of local or national relevance have been transmitted through printed newspapers. (…) The problem is that most of these newspapers are not available online. We want to change that."
Google's idea is to ensure that most of the editions of the largest number of newspapers in the world can be consulted in their original format. To do this, the Internet giant will have to digitize thousands of pages from hundreds of newspapers in the United States and Canada, countries for which they will begin the enormous work.
In this way, when the whole process is finished, anyone will be able to see how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recounted man's arrival on the Moon with its original headlines, original photographs, original advertising,...
The project itself began in 2006, when Google sealed agreements with The New York Times and The Washington Post to digitize and index the archives of both newspapers. Now, Google intends to expand the work to as many newspapers as possible, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette itself to the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which has been published continuously for 244 years, making it the oldest in North America.
After books, it is the turn of the written press.