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By David Rothman

GoogleGoogle is among the investors in MIT’s $100 wireless laptop project–having put in $2 million, according to today’s New York Times. This is a positive example for publishers of e-books and other content even if I wish the amount were greater. The way to prosperity for e-bookdom isn’t through harsh DRM or clever marketing tricks but through an enlarged market, especially at the global level. I’m sure that Google had some philanthropic reasons for the investment, but there are very practical ones as well. Talk about expanding the number of potential buyers of e-books and other content! An opp for Bertelsmann and Viacom to think about? They may not enjoy as many potential technological synergies as Google (now getting into wireless, with the possibility of a Google-branded wireless phone), just content ones, but this is something that still should be very much on their radar screens.

Related: A reference in the same NYT article about Google’s plans: “Google is planning to introduce a second-generation version of its downloadable computer search tool, Google Desktop. It will come with both personalization and software ‘agent’ features-learning capabilities–plus an invitation for independent programmers to develop small programs to extend the capability of the system.”

 
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