Google Taps LIFE's Image Library, Offers It To EveryoneGoogle Taps LIFE's Image Library, Offers It To Everyone

Through the decades, Life has provided a pictorial tapestry of American history. Through a new collaboration with Google, many of the iconic images captured by Life are now available through Google's Image Search function.Many of the images made available today have never been published online before. Google writes, "This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. This collection of newly digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by Life dating all the way back to the 1750s."

So far, Google and Life have digitized about 20% of Life's vast catalog of images. Google is still working to bring the entire catalog online. It says the effort, which includes some 10 million images, will take several more months to complete.

The landing page for the Life collection lets users browse through pictures by decade, as well as by people, places, events, sports, and culture. I quickly looked at some great photos of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet, Times Square throughout the years, and famous moments from the history of baseball. Many of the pictures are accompanied by information such as the time, date, and place and/or circumstances under which the photo was taken.

Users can look at a full-size, full-screen version of each image by clicking on the picture itself in the landing page. Of course, they are all for sale if you want them. Even if you're not interested in buying any of them, it's worth taking a look at Life's pictorial montage of history.