Just posted on Google’s YouTube: “The idea behind google ebooks is to truly set your reading from all these limitations.”
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Google eBooks Launches Today
Google’s long-awaited, long-promised ebook service begins rolling out today in the United States, unveiled in a blog post by product manager Abe Murray, leaving behind its pre-release moniker of Google Editions and now known simply as Google eBooks–one sign of how the world has changed since the web giant first started discussing selling “perpetual online access” to books in 2006. As previously indicated by the company, they expect to launch in other territories in early 2011. The new ebookstore is located at books.google.com/ebooks, but it is launching “throughout the day,” so we are advised that not all visitors will necessarily […]
Yes Virginia, There Is a Google eBook Service
Google has been saying most recently that they will launch their new ebook service in the US before the end of the year, and last night the WSJ reported that the company is “in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture”–missing the first night of Hanukkah, but with a good shot at arriving before Christmas. But “publishers cautioned [the service] has been delayed before and could be delayed again.” ABA members have begun executing contracts to participate, and numerous publishers have told us they have signed on, and “several publishers said they were exchanging files with Google–a […]
Sony Finally Announces Reading Apps
As Sony has rapidly declined from their former position as the No. 2 ebookseller in the US, many publishers have been mystified by the company’s lack of innovation and response to market trends. In a small glimmer of reformation, their ReaderStore has announced that they will finally start adding cross-platform apps–just like every other major vendor already has in place–some time in December. For now, they are promising iPhone and Android apps only.Sony site
Copia Opens, But They Aren’t Ready
Copia has finally “soft-launched,” moving from private beta to public beta yesterday though with no official announcement of the service’s debut yet. Among industry players they have partnered with in various ways are GoodReads, LibraryThing, and FiledBy, integrating content from those services. They also offer seven free books, all from Rosetta Books, to people who register for the service. The initial apps work on personal computers, the iPad and WIndows Phone 7, with Android and a Copia Touch App listed as “coming soon.” As promised way back in early January, the site is as much about social connections and discussion […]
More on eBooks and Territory
Diesel eBookstore celebrates the restoration of the final agency model publisher to their store with a look at agency six months later. Writing that “the A5 performed an impressive near-checkmate on the eBook chessboard,” they look at the pros and cons of operating in a partial-agency world. Among the weak points–related to the two stories above–are limitations to selling agency ebooks exclusively in the US: “Without exception, all A5 publishers now offer their eBook titles in the US only. Needless to say, our foreign customers are very upset. We, here at Diesel, have been very vocal with our A5 publishing […]