Organize all the world's information. If this is the motto of Google, the company yesterday took a big drop in its objective. In an e-mail, Google announced the newspaper partners worldwide who dropped to scan millions of pages of old publications. Search The News Archives, therefore, is abandoned.
The project was in progress since 2008. In almost three years, about 2000 newspapers in English, French and Spanish (among other languages, I imagine) had their historic pages copied to the Google database. Who wants to see the service can still go on this special page, where all publications are listed.
At a brief search I did in the service, I found only the Brazilian (and deceased) Journal of Brazil in the list. As journalism sent in January 1930, there were more publicity than anything else. The qualifiers held the cover of the newspaper, with few spaces for truly editorial content - some sites and blogs repeat the formula today.
OLD.
The staff of the Boston Phoenix, who was in the project, speculated that the purpose of scanning the newspapers was more complex than initially thought Google. Or has attracted few takers (students of journalism, for example).
Google says it will focus on products that help the communications industry as a payment system for reporting. We are waiting.
