Jim Panttaja

I was recently searching on Google Books (I wrote about Google Books earlier this week), and found that they now have information on the books that Mary and I have written and contributed to. But I was surprised that I couldn’t find a reference to The Microsoft SQL Server Survival Guide. At least I couldn’t looking it up by author name (Panttaja). I did find that there was a book by that title authored by Jim and Mary Panttajja. But that’s my book.

So, Google has meta data that is incorrect. No problem, I contacted Google to help them correct this information (they can actually read the information off the cover image if they would like).

It appears that they are ‘unable’ to correct data that is known by them to be in error. I received the following response from Greg:

Hello,

Thank you for your recent message. I have noted your book issue regarding
“The Microsoft SQL Server Survival Guide.” It appears that this title is
one of many books that we recently added to the Google Book Search index
in a metadata-only view. This means that users will only be searching
title, author, subject and copyright information, and in some cases,
tables of contents and/or a book summary. In effect, this is like seeing a
library card catalog online.

At this time we are unable to edit the information for books in
metadata-only view, as we receive this information from third-party
providers. We apologize for this inconvenience. However, I encourage you
to check back with us periodically, as we continue to develop new features
and functionalities.

Sincerely,
Greg
The Google Book Search Team

As Greg points out, it is like viewing a library card catalog online. The difference is that in this case the information is wrong. And Google is unable, and unwilling to provide correct information. Oh yes, and to be clear, it isn’t their fault because it comes from a third party.

This naively appears to me to be at odds with the Google mission statement: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it univerally accessible and useful.” Apparently inaccurate is ok - and too troublesome to correct.

I would expect Google to be at the forefront of maintaining accurate information. I would expect them to provide mechanisms to correct mistakes. Even though it comes from a third party - it is now their data. I am disappointed that they seem content to offer data that they know to be erroneous.