Google jumps on the online bookstore bandwagon

By on May 4, 2010 at 4:15 PM
eBooks May 4, 2010

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Following in the footsteps of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple, Google announced today that the search giant will be launching an online bookstore this summer. The bookstore will launch as Google Editions and will include a Google-managed online storefront as well as an affiliate program that will allow book retailers and independent shops to sell Google Editions’ books on their own website. Google will leverage its current book search service to provide customers with the ability to search and purchase books from the online bookstore. The list of publishers and expected pricing was not revealed but given the current competitive climate, we would expect Google Editions to follow suit with the current offering from Amazon, B&N, and Apple. Depending on the outcome of its settlement with book publishers and authors over the publication rights to out of print books, Google may be able to distinguish themselves from the competition by offering millions of out-of-print books that the search giant has been indexing and compiling for the last several years. Note to all the Android coders out there: you may want to start designing that knock out e-reader pronto.

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35 Comments

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  • QuesoGrande

    B-b-b-but Apple invented the online bookstore. How could Google backstab them like that?

    • l’bourbon

      Ha! How anti-competitive and monopolistic of them!

  • Mr. Sky

    This is good so we can see lower prices among competitors.

    • MikeD

      exactly.

      • MikeD

        So I get a minus for saying its a good thing for Google to enter the online bookstore competition?

        I thought it was a good thing.

      • …

        no, but you get a negative for complaining about a negative.

  • Skippity Bippity

    Apple invented God.

    • American Patriot

      Satan is the reason there is a bite out of the apple. This isn’t about Apple, though. It’s about Google, and something called ‘books’.

      • Skippity Bippity

        Books and Satan.. Those are the same things right?

      • Norm

        Unless the book is the bible, yes they are one in the same.

      • Skippity Bippity

        Norm.. Put a d*ck in your ear and f*ck what you’ve heard.

      • American Patriot

        The Bible makes the best rolling papers.

      • Norm

        @skippity
        Cute saying
        But why so upset from the comment?

      • NoHypeHere

        AP… are they called ‘Holy Rollers’?! LOL

        I apologize God and Bless all the starving pigmies down there in New Guinea (apologies to Larry)…

  • Jdlnmia

    I heard that the books can only be read with Flash…

  • Roman

    Not sure if they are just now jumping on, this has been in the works since last year…

  • DrPepper

    Jarret will be here crying soon.

  • StevenGlansburg

    The anti-Apple crowd apparently gave up reading comprehension. The first sentence even says in order: ‘Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple” as the companies that have developed online book stores. So technically Google is copying off of Amazon. The pro-Android/Google crowd is obviously very insecure, constantly bringing up Apple, when really, this should be a reflection on the Amazon Book store that is still no.1

    • l’bourbon

      Here’s a little something for your incisive comprehension:

      Tongue-in-cheek: Ironic, slyly humorous; not meant to be taken seriously.

      - The Oxford English Dictionary

    • Norm

      I think you’re insecure glansburg.
      You enter every non apple post and want to talk about apple.
      Anyways while you’re here, what do you think of the new advertising method jobs is trying to get patented?
      Where you get locked out of your phone until you respond to the advert.
      Maybe you should start a site…. “glansburg’s magical and revolutionary discussion forum sans google”

      • Scott

        Wow… Glansburg is right. The reading comprehension is way off in here… Should I state what he said AGAIN? “‘Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple’”. How is this exactly a non-apple post? I believe it says Apple more than once in the post. And they also have a bookstore. They seem relevant to me.

        Also, he was backing up Amazon.

      • StevenGlansburg

        That was my point. Google is not copying Apple. Amazon was the first and is the best. Ragging on the Android kids is due to the fact that whenever Google does something, there is a law suit, or there is some kind of significant business aquisition, the Android fankids go nuts with their “tongue-in-cheek” Apple nonsense.

        Google AND Apple copied Amazon here.

    • MikeD

      Insecure is putting it lightly.

      Maybe if they didn’t have the word “Apple” in the article at all, then they could absorb and respond to the story correctly.

  • tiolawa

    AWESOME!!!! This is the one thing in my opinion Google and Android have been missing!!!!

  • DubYa

    Looks like Google has copy and paste down.

    • …

      sure, they are copying amazon. but it is the next logical step. everything is becoming digital, so they too want a slice of pie.

      it’s like when your peers get the latest and greatest computer, you get it as well because it is awesome and will be more advantageous for you. but does that make you a lesser person because you copied bobby and jason that live down the street?

  • http://(null) Joe

    it’s all bean counters here, google wants a piece of the pie, and rightfully so. hopefully this will drive prices down some on competing services. you still can’t beat amazon, though. they were first to the game and IMHO, still the best. google has alot of money and weight to throw around and hopefully get it right the first time. the evo 4g is going to make a great case for google’s bookstore for sure!

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Providence Rhode Island, USA

  • Observer

    Google should just buy Amazon

  • Cold Dead Fingers

    Hahaha buy an iPad (soon to be iPhone as well) and you get to choose between Apple’s growing iBookstore and Amazons Kindle bookstore. Google’s fucked out of the gate. We need less half baked things like Google’s book store and more dedicated outlets like Amazon and Apple’s

    • T

      You know Google Books has existed for a very long time… and it lists books for sale from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, checks libraries, and so on and so forth… right? This is just a change in the name… so… since they list the prices of their competitors all in one place, I think your half-baked notion that Google is fucked out of the gate is well… fucked out of the gate.

  • Randall Lowe

    Still need a great Ebook app. for Android….HHUUHHMMM….

    • Dave

      Kobobooks just released their Android app.

  • http://www.teknoguru.com Teknoguru.com

    Storm is coming.

  • http://www.shreesearch.in Rohit Mishra

    Everyone wants something different and google doing same thing.

  • Dave

    All this talk of who was first….I don’t know who was actually first, but I do know that Peanut Press/Palm Reader, Fictionwise, Mobipocket, and probably a few others have been around for over a decade.

    Dave

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