5 ms·

Google eBookstore seems to have been launched

25 points by eitland 15y ago

mapleoin 15y ago
They also seem to be promoting an ereader from iRiver: http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ereader.html http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ereader.html The specs are similar to the kindle keyboard, but costs less ($99 without ads) and has a better resolution 768x1024 vs kindle's 600x800. I hate that clunky turn-page button in the middle though.
ewoodrich 15y ago
I, speaking as a consumer, love this. When iBooks was released, I almost gave up hope on ebooks, as Apple's platform dominance could squash competition. But as Amazon has expanded their offering with their same price model, and Google and other "players" are moving in, competition will drive down prices a la physical books (or at least I hope).
steelaz 15y ago
Tried searching for a book, search field has auto-suggest, selected the title I want and got 300 completely irrelevant results.
- eitland 15y ago
  Seems to me what we are seeing is a glitch. Can't confirm but the lack of titles in important categories points clearly in that direction.
- adambyrtek 15y ago
  Probably you are outside of the US, like me. In this case search returns only public domain results.
nicwest 15y ago
> Google and authorised resellers have the discretion to set prices as they see fit. We will share the revenue from any sales with you according to the list price that you provide. http://books.google.com/support/partner/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=1079107 http://books.google.com/support/partner/bin/answer.py?hl=en-... At a guess I would say that publishers will not like this one bit.
- nicwest 15y ago
  think I might have misread this apologies.
wccrawford 15y ago
Prices are high. Everything I've looked up seemed high, and everything I bought recently from Kindle was cheaper there, then and now.
- Mordor 15y ago
  What angers me most is not the high prices, but that so little goes to the author. It's not only greedy bankers who are ruining the world for the rest of us.
  - nicwest 15y ago
    Authors always have the option to self publish, and this is becoming increasingly easy to do with ebooks/pod.
  - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
    I agree that more should go to the author but following an author friend on Twitter going through the editing of his third novel, I've been amazed by how much editing and fact checking is done by the publisher (or rather the editor on behalf of the publisher). They've pulled him up on everything from one character removing the wrong persons trousers (seriously), to commentary about when things were overwrought to picking him up on mentioning a TV show that hadn't screened at the time. And that's just a selection of the bits he mentioned, I'm fairly certain there's a shed load more that were less remarkable and amusing. Writing may be a solo pursuit but getting a book in a finished form and getting it to market takes more effort from more people than is apparent to most of us I think and that's all got to be paid for by someone. Obviously an author could contract directly with a copy editor but there are issues with that, from having to provide the money up front to the fact that once you the author are paying them they're less likely to give you honest feedback for fear they won't get work in the future. The current publishing model is, like most businesses, flabby, but we need to be careful not to assume that there's no value there.
    - Mordor 15y ago
      Great point and I would expect copy editors to be the real losers if things were to change, since people assume anyone could be an editor, even their 10 year old daughter.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
They launched this a year ago. What has changed?
- k-mcgrady 15y ago
  The change is that you can buy books now. Previously there were only free ones that were out of copyright.
  - phlyingpenguin 15y ago
    I bought a book, Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole, from Google Books when it launched a year ago.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    You definitely have been able to buy ebooks for a long time. Are you talking about paper books?
    - k-mcgrady 15y ago
      Really? I thought it was only free books. Might be wrong, I use Kindle mostly.
kablamo 15y ago
Google has an android app so you can read the books on your phone. But its not available in the UK.
metatronscube 15y ago
Prices in the UK are super high, and there are some really strange device limitations (e.g. Can view on ipad but not the iphone). The application is really flaky as well. I'm afraid compared to ibooks and Kindle apps it just isn't up to anything much.
jmreid 15y ago
How out of touch is Google? From: http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ios.html http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ios.html "Recommended for iPhones with 256MB memory or above" That's an easy way to confuse a set of customers that either don't know or don't care about how much RAM their iPhone has. Why couldn't Google just list the models that are compatible? Maybe their Android world of specs has clouded their judgement.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  Maybe with Android that list is too long?
brooklynite 15y ago
This thing launched in late 2010 http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/12/06/google-launches-its-ebook-store-in-the-us-3m-titles-available-today/ http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/12/06/google-launches-its-...
vidarh 15y ago
Doesn't tell me clearly whether the book is DRM'd or not == no sale.
- kijin 15y ago
  That was the first thing I tried to check, too. After Amazon's "1984" remote-deletion incident, I wouldn't touch an eBook with DRM. How many years did it take for major online music stores to start offering DRM-free MP3s? I wonder if it will take longer or shorter in the eBook market.
  - garyd 15y ago
    Adobe provides the backend infrastructure for this and every other service except for Amazon. And yes, they have DRM but its trivial to circumvent with the proper tools. But consider the independent book stores that might stay open a little longer if you suggest they get with the program. I mention this because a longtime friend of mine opened her store 5 years ago and now that occasional Harry Potter release is not something she can rely on, she found Google's reseller program super easy to set up, maintain, and integrate with her main & mobile web sites. Look up St Johns Bookseller if you're curious.
nextparadigms 15y ago
Google should try ad-based books and disrupt Amazon. What do they hope to accomplish by offering the exact same service as Amazon, but with fewer titles and higher prices? They are not even being competitive, let alone disruptive.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Amazon is already doing this. No disruption required.
  - abraham 15y ago
    Amazon has reduced Kindle costs supported by ads but I'm not aware of any ad supported books.
    - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
      No, but it's a pretty small step. There's another startup doing it already: 24symbols.com
garyd 15y ago
This has been live for 3-6 months now.

25 points by eitland 15y ago

They also seem to be promoting an ereader from iRiver: http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ereader.html http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ereader.html The specs are similar to the kindle keyboard, but costs less ($99 without ads) and has a better resolution 768x1024 vs kindle's 600x800. I hate that clunky turn-page button in the middle though.

ewoodrich 15y ago

I, speaking as a consumer, love this. When iBooks was released, I almost gave up hope on ebooks, as Apple's platform dominance could squash competition. But as Amazon has expanded their offering with their same price model, and Google and other "players" are moving in, competition will drive down prices a la physical books (or at least I hope).

steelaz 15y ago

Tried searching for a book, search field has auto-suggest, selected the title I want and got 300 completely irrelevant results.

eitland 15y ago
Seems to me what we are seeing is a glitch. Can't confirm but the lack of titles in important categories points clearly in that direction.
adambyrtek 15y ago
Probably you are outside of the US, like me. In this case search returns only public domain results.

nicwest 15y ago

> Google and authorised resellers have the discretion to set prices as they see fit. We will share the revenue from any sales with you according to the list price that you provide. http://books.google.com/support/partner/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=1079107 http://books.google.com/support/partner/bin/answer.py?hl=en-... At a guess I would say that publishers will not like this one bit.

nicwest 15y ago
think I might have misread this apologies.

wccrawford 15y ago

Prices are high. Everything I've looked up seemed high, and everything I bought recently from Kindle was cheaper there, then and now.

Mordor 15y ago
What angers me most is not the high prices, but that so little goes to the author. It's not only greedy bankers who are ruining the world for the rest of us.
- nicwest 15y ago
  Authors always have the option to self publish, and this is becoming increasingly easy to do with ebooks/pod.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  I agree that more should go to the author but following an author friend on Twitter going through the editing of his third novel, I've been amazed by how much editing and fact checking is done by the publisher (or rather the editor on behalf of the publisher). They've pulled him up on everything from one character removing the wrong persons trousers (seriously), to commentary about when things were overwrought to picking him up on mentioning a TV show that hadn't screened at the time. And that's just a selection of the bits he mentioned, I'm fairly certain there's a shed load more that were less remarkable and amusing. Writing may be a solo pursuit but getting a book in a finished form and getting it to market takes more effort from more people than is apparent to most of us I think and that's all got to be paid for by someone. Obviously an author could contract directly with a copy editor but there are issues with that, from having to provide the money up front to the fact that once you the author are paying them they're less likely to give you honest feedback for fear they won't get work in the future. The current publishing model is, like most businesses, flabby, but we need to be careful not to assume that there's no value there.
  - Mordor 15y ago
    Great point and I would expect copy editors to be the real losers if things were to change, since people assume anyone could be an editor, even their 10 year old daughter.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

They launched this a year ago. What has changed?

k-mcgrady 15y ago
The change is that you can buy books now. Previously there were only free ones that were out of copyright.
- phlyingpenguin 15y ago
  I bought a book, Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole, from Google Books when it launched a year ago.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  You definitely have been able to buy ebooks for a long time. Are you talking about paper books?
  - k-mcgrady 15y ago
    Really? I thought it was only free books. Might be wrong, I use Kindle mostly.

kablamo 15y ago

Google has an android app so you can read the books on your phone. But its not available in the UK.

metatronscube 15y ago

Prices in the UK are super high, and there are some really strange device limitations (e.g. Can view on ipad but not the iphone). The application is really flaky as well. I'm afraid compared to ibooks and Kindle apps it just isn't up to anything much.

jmreid 15y ago

How out of touch is Google? From: http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ios.html http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ios.html "Recommended for iPhones with 256MB memory or above" That's an easy way to confuse a set of customers that either don't know or don't care about how much RAM their iPhone has. Why couldn't Google just list the models that are compatible? Maybe their Android world of specs has clouded their judgement.

Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
Maybe with Android that list is too long?

brooklynite 15y ago

This thing launched in late 2010 http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/12/06/google-launches-its-ebook-store-in-the-us-3m-titles-available-today/ http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/12/06/google-launches-its-...

vidarh 15y ago

Doesn't tell me clearly whether the book is DRM'd or not == no sale.

kijin 15y ago
That was the first thing I tried to check, too. After Amazon's "1984" remote-deletion incident, I wouldn't touch an eBook with DRM. How many years did it take for major online music stores to start offering DRM-free MP3s? I wonder if it will take longer or shorter in the eBook market.
- garyd 15y ago
  Adobe provides the backend infrastructure for this and every other service except for Amazon. And yes, they have DRM but its trivial to circumvent with the proper tools. But consider the independent book stores that might stay open a little longer if you suggest they get with the program. I mention this because a longtime friend of mine opened her store 5 years ago and now that occasional Harry Potter release is not something she can rely on, she found Google's reseller program super easy to set up, maintain, and integrate with her main & mobile web sites. Look up St Johns Bookseller if you're curious.

nextparadigms 15y ago

Google should try ad-based books and disrupt Amazon. What do they hope to accomplish by offering the exact same service as Amazon, but with fewer titles and higher prices? They are not even being competitive, let alone disruptive.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago
Amazon is already doing this. No disruption required.
- abraham 15y ago
  Amazon has reduced Kindle costs supported by ads but I'm not aware of any ad supported books.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    No, but it's a pretty small step. There's another startup doing it already: 24symbols.com

garyd 15y ago

This has been live for 3-6 months now.