Google to Open a Digital book Marketplace
In an announcement that may come as a surprise to some, Google has said that it plans to launch a partner program for authors to sell digital versions of their books online.
For many years now Google has sought to bring out of print or public domain books, to the masses through their "Google book Search." When they first did this many authors and publishers, such as the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers weren't happy and took Google to court over it.
But, the world has changed in the last three years and as we well know now, digital is THE format of choice for content publishing. So, it is no surprise that the lawsuit against Google has been settled and Google and these same publishers and authors are working together to bring more books online.
This is good news for us...readers and authors, but what about the mighty Amazon?
So far in the scramble to get into the electronic reader market Amazon.com has come out on top. Since the kindle and kindle 2.0 Amazon has clearly been the dominant force in electronic readers. Between the kindle and Amazon's online book store, the Kindle Shop, it has far exceeded anyone's expectations of the popularity these new electronic book readers could achieve.
Well, today Amazon fired back at Google. It announced the release date (June 10th) of its newest generation electronic reader, the kindle DX. The kindle DX will sport a large 9.7 inch screen, be only one third of an inch thick, hold up to 3500 books AND have 3G functionality.
With large, well timed plays such as this, Amazon has managed to stay one step ahead of the competition. And there has been competition...the Sony Reader, BeBook, Irex Iliad, and newer electronic readers such as Plastic Logic, Samsun Reader, Fujitsu Reader and most recently the Cool-er electronic book reader. But, none of these other than the Sony Reader have managed to gather any traction in this fast developing industry.
Hot market gets hotter
Let's not count Google out though. It has been preparing for a move such as this for a long time. In the last three years, Google has scanned more than 7 million volumes from several university libraries. It has 1.5 million public domain books currently available online (and on the Sony Reader PRS 700) as well as a lager sample of new books which people can scan the first 20% of and then follow a link to Barnes and Noble to buy. But, Google wants to start selling access to its enormous catalogue on its own.
And so, two of the largest internet companies will go head to head in a battle to control digital books. Stay tuned to find out who comes out on top.
