subject: Google eBooks launches and jumps on the eReader bandwagon [print this page] Google eBooks launches and jumps on the eReader bandwagon
Google announced today that it is launching Google eBooks, which is its long-awaited digital bookselling online storefront. The site will offer hundreds of thousands of popular book titles for sale and millions free of charge and will compete with other digital book companies and the like. According to the Wall-Street Journal, the digital book business it already valued at $1 billion and is expected to grow in the coming years.
"Publishers want more competition in the marketplace, and we already have a big investment," said Tom Turvey, a director of strategic partnerships at Google, in the article. "We're trying to extend the value of content that exists in the world by enabling people to find it and buy it."
Users will be able to purchase digital books through books.google.com/ebooks and read them on devices, such as tablets, computers, smartphones and e-readers. Google released e-book buying and reading apps for Apple's iPhone, iTouch and iPad and Android OS mobile devices.
By logging into their Google account, users will be able to store their books on their own bookshelf. Google engineers also say users will be able to start reading e-books on one device or computer and switch midway through the book to other devices without losing their spot, if need be.
The new service is an extension of Google Books, a book-search site linked to the company's main Web search engine, says the article. "Launched in 2004, it displays full copies or previews of millions of books and points consumers to places where they could be purchased, including Amazon.com. Now Google will sell books directly through an online store and allow others, including independent bookstores, to sell Google eBooks on their own sites and get a share of the revenue."
