Read Your Favorite Magazines With Google Books

Scenario: You want to browse through past editions of your favorite magazines
Solution: Google Books has archived some magazines going back 50 years





Despite all the doom and gloom predictions surrounding the death of magazines, it's worth remembering that for the last 60 years they've dominated the mass media landscape. From iconic front covers to groundbreaking stories, magazines have helped shape American culture in bold and meaningful ways.

If you visit any magazine web site you're likely to find content from the current issue, and if you're lucky some articles from the last few months or couple of years. But what happens if you want to check out an edition of your favorite read from 1965? Or 1982? Right now that's simply not possible.

The good news is that Google is starting to change this. Working with select magazine publishers, Google has begun digitizing magazine archives and making them available via its Google Books service. Publications such as New York Magazine are available and give readers the chance to browse editions going back as far as 1965. The digital version is an exact replica of the print version, with each page a scanned image of the original.

Check out the video above for a full walk-through.