Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market.
In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its Kindle reading device.
It’s rather sad that the masses have little to no idea that e-books are available from their local library (and for free) from services like NetLibrary and ebrary. )-:
Source: NY Times
See Also: Closer Reading of Google Edition (via Publishers Lunch)
So Powells.com, Borders.com, Buy.com and other retail partners, both in the US and internationally, will be selling what could be hundreds of thousands of ebooks on behalf of Google and publishers–and publishers will be able to sell the Google Editions directly through their own sites.
Will direct access to new and free (with a library card) e-books available from a local public or university library also be linked to via the library link in Google Books? You would think (and hope) that OCLC would push for this since they own NetLibrary.
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on Monday, June 1st, 2009 and is filed under Information Industry.
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