In addition to the scanned text of the articles, Google News Archive will feature scanned images of newspaper articles, pictures, ads and more. Which is especially good, since the scanned text in the excerpts sometimes reads like . . . well, scanned text:

To access old news the archives, you can take your chances with a keyword search in regular Google News or go straight to Google News Archive. A note appears in the snipped if the archive contains a related article:

Viewing an article in the archive brings up the image of the newspaper itself:

Look ma, no newsprint on my hands, and no smudges on the page. Awesome! (What? Dont tell me Im the only aspiring twentieth century historian thrilled by this announcement.)

While many larger newspapers, such as the New York Times, have made their archives searchable online, this initiative also partners with smaller newspapers through ProQuest and Heritage services.

Eventually, Google News Archive searches will be integrated into main index searches as the GNA index grows.

PS"Im back!

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