Google’s initiative to scan and index millions of books was Google Books, originally introduced as Google Print in 2004.
The project combined partnerships with publishers and major libraries. Google scanned books, converted page images into searchable text using optical character recognition, and displayed results ranging from bibliographic information and snippets to full books in the public domain or those made available by rights holders.
Google announced its Library Project in December 2004, partnering with institutions including the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library. The scale of the plan was enormous: Google initially discussed digitizing about 15 million volumes within a decade.
A frequent mix-up is the name. Google Print was the original 2004 name, while Google Book Search and eventually Google Books became the familiar names. The project also triggered major copyright litigation, including Authors Guild v. Google, in which courts ultimately upheld Google’s book-search activities as fair use.