Google Catalogs is in Limbo

Google Catalogs seems to be neglected. I checked it out earlier today and could not find a single Catalog with a 2008 publication date. I did find one catalogue with £ prices, and I had not realised that the Catalogs service ever included any British catalogue companies (we have catalog vendors and catalogue companies depending on where we are?).

Google Catalogs was launched in 2001, and uses rather similar technology to Google Book Search. I doubt that it was a deliberate dummy run for the books project (originally Google Print), but I am sure that useful lessons were learned. Google's books project began to see the light of day in 2004, first at Frankfurt for the world of publishing and then with various Library partnerships. Mind you The Google Book Search History page, from which I have checked these dates, could do with an update. A lot has happened since 2006. Michigan did tell us in February that they had got through 1 million titles (most but not all from the Google partnership). The Google project is coming on apace and some fresh initiatives will confirm the seriousness of their intent.