Google’s E-Book Store Takes Off Touting Ability to Read Any Book Anywhere

image via books.google.com

Yesterday was the opening of the Google e-book store.  This creates some serious competition for Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.  Publishers are flocking to be included on their site. 

According to the New York Times, “More than 4,000 publishers, including large trade book companies like Random House, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, have made books available for sale through Google, many at prices that are identical to those of other e-bookstores.”

Independent bookstores are even able to sign up to sell Google’s e-books on their websites.  According to the New York Times, “It is also an opportunity for independents to learn from past missteps. They were slow to build Web sites to sell books during the initial expansion of online retailing in the 1990s, a mistake that led their customers to turn to Amazon and its deeply discounted selection.”

Google’s site boosts of having over 3 million titles that are usable on just about every e-book device.  They are touting their site as the world’s largest library of e-books.

Thebookdesigner.com had an interesting article about Google’s e-book site.  One important thing they pointed out was “The Google eBookstore is completely cloud-driven. Rather than the Kindle or iBooks model of downloading your purchase to a device, the eBookstore is where your purchase lives. You surf there to read your book, whether you use your iPhone on the train, your iPad sitting out on the porch, or your PC while at your desk. And since the book itself is centrally located, it keeps your place each time you log on to read it.”

To find out more about the store, check out the following video.

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