Google Gets into eBook Market with Google eBookstore

Google has been busy. After purchasing Grand Central and Gizmo5 to produce Google Voice to compete with Skype in the Internet telephone a field, and after bringing Internet to television with Google TV, Google is now going after eBook market by launching Google eBookstore on December 6, 2010 (just in time for the Christmas season).

Unlike Amazon with its Kindle eBook reader, and unlike Barnes & Noble with its Nook eBook reader, Google does not actually have an eBook reading device. Google is first and foremost a software company rather than a hardware company.

But the upside is that after downloading or paying for your eBooks, you can read them on a variety of devices such as the Nook, Sony eBook reader, laptop, computer, iPad, or Android phones. Basically, you need a Javascript-enabled browser to read the eBooks.

However at the day of the launch (December 6, 2010), you still cannot read Google's eBooks on Amazon's Kindle. Although that may change in the future, it is uncertain because Google eBookstore is competing directly with Amazon's Kindle eBookstore.

At http://books.google.com

For those who have been there before, this was the location where Google lets you search through millions of books that it had scanned or digitized. It is still there, but it shares the page with a Google eBookstore button that take you to the Google eBookstore at http://books.google.com/ebooks.

Like most stores, Google eBookstore will present its top sellers and new arrivals on its first page. And then you can browse by subject. Google started out in the search business, so of course you can search through its entire eBook collection or search by category.

How does Google process payment? With Google Checkout of course. This let you pay for your purchase using your own credit card.

You can also buy Google eBooks from independent booksellers like Alibris or Powells.com.

Google eBooks lives in the Internet cloud.  After making the purchase from Google eBookstore, the books will be shelved in "My Library" (after logging in with your Google Account).

You can then read books using your web browser connected to the internet.  The book has a table of content just like a regular book.  And there is a bottom horizontal slider to scroll to different locations in the book.  You can also search through the book.  If you resize your browser, the page resizes and text reflows.

To see how nice the book reading experience on your browser, pick out a book from Google eBookstore and click "View Sample".  You don't even need to log in.

Users do have the option to download PDF and ePub formats for reading on their eReaders, smartphones, and offline computers. 

The PDF format presents the book pages in it original layout (although you can still zoom in and out).   The ePub format is a open-standard file format for digital books and provides the ability for text to reflow depending on the screen size of you reading device.

Books have copyrights and Google must enforce those copyrights using DRM (digital rights management) software so that you do not make multiple copies to distribute them.  To enforce content protection, Google is using Adobe eBook DRM software which is supported by many reading devices listed here.

Google does have almost 3 million free eBooks available on Google eBookstore. 

This includes the Free Classics and books that are in the public domain or whose author has to released copyright of the book.

At this time, it claims to be "the world's largest selection of ebooks" ^[source]  with almost 3 million free eBooks and hundreds of thousands more for purchase. 

This article was written in December 2010.

This article written in December 2010. A the pace Google is moving, by the time you read this, the above content may by outdated. Author may receive compensation from display ads in content and links.