Shakespeare, Where Art Thou? Right here at Google!

Lovers of Shakespeare, rejoice, for Google has just launched a site dedicated to the bard, featuring full texts of 37 plays, links to related scholarly research, Internet groups, and even videos of theater performances of Shakespeare plays. The site will also enable theatre fans to take a literary field trip at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, via the recently updated Google Earth. The site,http://books.google.com/googlebooks/shakespeare, is housed within Google Book Search which provides links to available editions to each play and also enables users to preview and buy the editions. If you decide you want a copy, “All editions” will show you every version in Google Book Search, many of which are available for purchase. Moreover, users can type in a line or phrase from any of Shakespeare’s works to directly access that part of the play. The site launches along with the commencement of the 50th anniversary season of ‘Shakespeare in the Park’, New York City’s famous outdoor festival, which is being sponsored by Google.