Despite the backlash from book publishers, Google is moving ahead with its plans to digitize books, rolling out standalone book search services in 14 countries on Tuesday - the same day that the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) became the latest publishers' organization to say Google's offer to publishers to opt out of the project is backward, writes Internet News. The international services let users search English-language books via domain-specific search services, similar to print.google.com, then read passages from the books where those words appear; the search results will include links to online retailers to allow searchers to buy the books.

Google recently said it would suspend the scanning of copyrighted works - except in cases where it had express permission from the owner - until at least November; publishers, however, are balking at the opt-out approach.

Within the past week, the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) have both issued statements strongly opposing the Google Print project, reports the E-Commerce Times. They say that even with a moratorium on scanning of copyrighted books in place, and even with an "opt-out" policy being offered, copyright-protected works would be swept up in the effort make books available online.

But Google reaffirmed its plan to continue with the Google Library project, scanning books under copyright that are owned by participating libraries, despite the protests. "We are currently scanning public domain works of our library partners. Starting November 1st, we will expand our scanning to include the full collections of these libraries," the company's statement said.