Google announces eBooks

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/discover-more-than-3-million-google.html

by adambyrtek • 16 years ago

144 89 16 years ago

googleblog.blogspot.com

sgift• 16 years ago

Is it just me or is their bookstore search awful? I've tried various programming subjects (software, software engineering, computer graphics, etc.) and always get results like "Report of the 55th National Conference on Weights and Measures 1970" or "Veterans' Administration FY 1988 budget"

galactus• 16 years ago

Same for me

mian2zi3• 16 years ago

Same here. And no advanced search?

grav1tas• 16 years ago

If it's anything like the Android App Store search on my phone, I think I'll stick with my Kindle, or real books. I'm confused how a company that made search work so well has such poor offerings for things like my apps or these books. What gives?

nodata• 16 years ago

Android App search is terrible. Now this bookstore is too.

You'd think Google could get search right.

benmccann• 16 years ago

Maybe it was a temporary problem. I did a search for machine learning and the results look fine to me: http://books.google.com/ebooks?q=machine+learning

ojilles2• 16 years ago

Depends on your definition of "fine", here's the first 7 results from that URL:

  - Library of Congress 1993
  - Library of Congress subject headings 1980
  - Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series 1962
  - Mezzofanti's System of Learning Languages Applied to the Study of French. (Close, but no cigar)
  - Wildlife and oceans in a changing climate
  - Occupational outlook handbook

yafujifide• 16 years ago

Same here. Searching for books I already own on Kindle returns completely different books unrelated to the book I am searching for. Searching for author and title does not help. For instance, searching for "probability theory sivia" returns books on biology, the JFK assassination, fish oil, "standards and expectations", theatre, etc., and one book on "Le raisonnemet bayesien" which may have something to do with probability theory. But it does not return the book on probability theory by Sivia.

Edit: See for yourself: http://books.google.com/ebooks?as_brr=5&q=probability+th...

techtalsky• 16 years ago

Yeah, it has some remarkable similarities to Google Video.

nextparadigms• 16 years ago

Finally! One more reason to boycott Amazon.

cskau• 16 years ago

And once again non-Americans are left out sigh

I can't help laughing when they even write about how incredibly open they are.

And what, even the video is private ? I'm guessing it's just location blocked. .. but why??

eiji• 16 years ago

I don't think this is google's fault.

I think it is still too hard to turn a book into an ebook. Google did a fine job of digitizing a bunch of library title, but that wont do it.

They have to share a spread that technology (make it cheap). I want to put my books into a backpack, go to a store nearby and pick my books up the next day together with the ebooks. In germany that would not be against the law, because it's a private copy. Maybe for 10 bucks per book (1Cent/page?).

That would jumpstart the whole ebook thing in europe ... finally.

This is my naive consumer perspective, not a publisher perspective.

robotron• 16 years ago

Think about it. Really hard. In your visualizations use terms like "licensing" and "international". You may find enlightenment this way.

masklinn2• 16 years ago

> Think about it. Really hard.

No need to think hard about it: Google simply doesn't give a shit. Really. Let me remind you that, almost two years in, Google Voice is still completely and utterly useless outside of North America.

> You may find enlightenment this way.

Enlightenment as to why the video of their ebooks demo would be region-locked?

tomjen3• 16 years ago

All my visualization came with was the words "bloody fucking racists", "typical Goggle" and "screw that, they are available on certain ship related sites for free."

What did you visualize?

bobbin_cygna• 16 years ago

I'm in south america and I'm not blocked.

Derbasti• 16 years ago

I am non-American, too. Apple will let me buy English books as long as I have a valid US Apple ID. Go to Ebay, buy a US iTunes gift card, and you have one. Amazon will let me buy English books as long as I have a US credit card. That one is harder to get a hold of. You need friends. Google now needs a credit card and an IP address. The latter can be done easily and legally through services like socksify.com or even tor.

You can get technical literature from PragProg or OReilly from anywhere. There are plenty of good small ebook publishers out there.

It should come as no surprise that Google searches for ebooks rate piracy-related sites higher than ebook shops. It is currently way harder to buy an ebook than to pirate it.

But book publishers suck in the same way record companies suck. And they will go the same way record companies went.

kentosi• 16 years ago

You might want to check amazon again. I live in Australia, and I just recently bought 2 books from amazon Japan.

borism2• 16 years ago

What is it with Amazon that makes it possible for them to sell eBooks to anywhere in the world no questions asked?

I hate DRM and I love my B&N nook, but fuck it, I want Amazon to make Kindle app for nook!

Really tired of seeing "not available in your part of the world yet" for the last few years in most eBook stores.

aquark• 16 years ago

Amazon do not sell ebooks equally everywhere. I often follow a link to a book from a blog or the like only to be told the Kindle version 'is not available in my region' (Canada).

listic• 16 years ago

Amazon is not selling eBooks to anywhere. Yes, selling in 100+ countries is impressive, but there are 200+ of them.

borism2• 16 years ago

still, 100 > 1

kevingailey• 16 years ago

Keep Innovating Google..

mark_l_watson2• 16 years ago

Why not support the Kindle? Creating books in the Kindle format is easy enough. I don't understand this decision.

mark_l_watson2• 16 years ago

Answer my own question: ""The reader itself is built in Java, and will be accessible on mobile devices via the browser or the standalone apps — the Android app should be available now, and the iOS app will be so soon.""

jonhendry• 16 years ago

The kindle is also implemented with Java (on top of Linux).

chwahoo• 16 years ago

It is easy enough to author .mobi files compatible with Kindle, but Amazon doesn't let others create their own DRM'ed ebooks.

Flankk• 16 years ago

Anyone remember Google Video? Me neither.

Amazon and Apple own the ebook market and Google doesn't even have a tablet. Can you read Google ebooks on a Kindle? So much for read anywhere. Sorry Google but you're late for the party.

microtonal• 16 years ago

That's why there are standards, and the Google Bookstore supports two standards (ePub and PDF).

You know, there are also people out there with Sony, BeBook, and iRiver readers.

lancewiggs2• 16 years ago

and there are people put there with MP3 players that are not iPods. There are thousands of brands, but I cannot recall any right now.

steve193• 16 years ago

Both the ePub and PDF are DRM encumbered. I would not call those "standards".

americandesi333• 16 years ago

I think this takes our personal library into the ubiquitous cloud, which is great. But again, the key question is, will Google be able to integrate with existing eBooks like Kindle, Nook or Plastic Logic. That will be the one big thing that will determine their success...

Another cool feature I really like is the ability for small bookstores to create their own storefront. That is a smart move. By opening the cloud, they will capitalize on the marketplace created by someone else.

Groxx4• 16 years ago

Nook is on the list, but no Kindle. Though, ultimately, anything with web access. The web reader looks pretty minimal, it'd probably run fine on an E-ink device like the Kindle.

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/supported-devices

msluyter• 16 years ago

  1. Get a group of friends together with similar reading tastes.
  2. Create a new shared Google account.
  3. Share books.
  4. Profit? (Any reasons this wouldn't work?)

simonsarris2• 16 years ago

Assuming they will restrict the account to signing on from one location at a time, it would be the equivalent of loaning others books in e-readers that allow it.

Or the equivalent of a bunch of people sharing a Steam account.

troymc3• 16 years ago

You might start reading a book on your computer at home in the morning, and you might leave that open as you rush off to work. You might open a second copy on your e-reader as you go to work, and so on.

Therefore there are natural use cases where you have the same Google account logged into Google ebooks on multiple devices at the same time.

Therefore Google must allow for those use cases.

Those use cases can be mimicked by friends sharing a Google account.

Google could check for obvious misuse. For example, they could look for two devices separated by a large distance and using the same Google account with Google ebooks at the same time. I know they already do something like that with Gmail (for a different reason).

forza• 16 years ago

"We designed Google eBooks to be open."

How exactly is this open?

jws• 16 years ago

The formats are open, ePUB and PDF. It is doesn't appear to me that you can actually download the files.

• Android and iOS have dedicated reader apps that support offline reading. Something is downloaded, but it might well be DRM wrapped.

• Web browser based reading appears to be online only. No mention of downloading and using your own native reader on a laptop.

• The interesting one is the nook. For nook the book is transferred into the native nook reader. Sounds like there might be some way to get the book in that process, or maybe they have already DRM'd it with B&N's blessing.

Please, I already have a book reading app I like. I don't want your vanity take on what a book reader should be. Just sell me the book.

Groxx4• 16 years ago

No Kindle support (though the web reader looks E-ink friendly). Amazon really needs to open up their SDK and allow you to write book-readers - they could grab a huge market if they did. As-is, they may be left hurting if they don't explicitly support this, especially if Google's claim of "the world's largest selection of ebooks" is accurate (and I have no reason to doubt it).

xtho• 16 years ago

Amazon should rather support epub format if they care to have some success in Europe and maybe some other non-US markets.

steve193• 16 years ago

ePub is not the problem. It is the Adobe DRM that is comes baked into most ePub documents that are sold.

blub• 16 years ago

I don't see how having more than one app for reading books on a kindle would help me, the user. I want to read books, not juggle apps.

Groxx4• 16 years ago

How about a research-assisting app, for text books? I wouldn't want the standard reading app to do what it would do, the extra UI elements would get in the way. And I wouldn't want to be stuck to a single one, there are multiple paradigms for different use-cases. So either clutter, or options-overload.

Similarly, from everything I've seen on E-ink devices, I could write a reader I'd be much happier with. For instance: half-page updates so one can speed-read without pausing between pages. Without the ability to do so, they're relying solely on their internal developers to make correct decisions for everyone.

rmc2• 16 years ago

Or Google could release the books in DRM free format. Then it'll work on Kindle.

lancewiggs2• 16 years ago

amazon sells books, and let's you read them on any device, their own Kindle included. They would see that opening their device up to Google or others will reduce the amount of books that they can sell. It would be similar to Apple opening up iPods to Windows encrypted/DRMed music files.

handrake2• 16 years ago

I don't think they're gonna do it unless they give up DRM on their books. If third parties are allowed to write reader apps, then it would be almost impossible for Amazon to enforce DRM on its users.

inklesspen2• 16 years ago

The Kindle can already read DRM-free Mobipocket and PDF ebooks.

dotBen• 16 years ago

Can anyone deduce what the DRM position is on books sold via Google Books?

Closest I can get is http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/content.html which says PDF and ePUB formats that might have DRM in them -- but I wasn't aware there was any (significant) DRM in PDF format.

protomyth• 16 years ago

I read somewhere it was Adobe's.

angrycoder• 16 years ago

I've only done a quick skim, but their prices are really high. The ebook version of many programming books are more expensive than their paper counterparts at amazon.

troymc3• 16 years ago

I got a Kindle in August, which has a similar "all your books in our cloud" approach. Now I worry about Amazon being able to cancel or delete my account, cutting me off from every book I bought in the Kindle Store. I feel like that's giving them too much power.

The same problem exists with the new Google ebooks service.

I back up my computer with Time Machine and Carbonite. I'm not worried about losing the ebooks stored on my computer. I don't need Amazon or Google to "keep my books safe."

Compare to O'Reilly Media: "Whenever possible we provide [eBooks] to you in five DRM-free file formats — PDF, ePub, Kindle-compatible .mobi, DAISY, and Android .apk — that you can use on the devices of your choice." (from their website)

Music from iTunes is similar to eBooks from O'Reilly: no DRM, download the files and store them yourself.

naner• 16 years ago

I believe there are backup tools for the Kindle that strip out the DRM and save the books to your PC.

But essentially this is the same risk as your house burning down and taking your books with it. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

omh• 16 years ago

I have home insurance, so if my house burns down I get the cash to buy replacement books. I doubt that they'd pay out if Amazon shut down Kindle.

RK• 16 years ago

They say that you can download ePub or PDF to read "offline" or on an ereader.

http://books.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...

jyoti00• 16 years ago

That's why I never bought a Kindle.It's like paying for a book but be forced to keep it only at the shopkeeper's shelf. Kindle means I don't own the book I have paid for. Giving them too much power is another thing that I'm wary of. So I still use various mail accounts, various options for online activities instead of going ga-ga over all things G.

_pius• 16 years ago

That's why I never bought a Kindle.It's like paying for a book but be forced to keep it only at the shopkeeper's shelf.

I don't know of any actual Kindle owners who feel that way.

dkarl• 16 years ago

I see Kindle purchases as a gamble on Amazon's good conduct, and I think it's a good gamble. The amount of leverage Kindle customers have over Amazon is phenomenal. I buy thousands of dollars of physical books and other merchandise through them every year. (By comparison, I don't spend more than $200 per year on Kindle books.) If they ever screwed me on my Kindle books, I would shop on Amazon, read the reviews, and then spend an extra five minutes per purchase finding somewhere else to order. I don't think I'm atypical for a Kindle customer, either in my high spending on Amazon or my willingness to go shop elsewhere. If they screw Kindle customers, they will pay for it dearly, and that's good enough for me.

rmc2• 16 years ago

They mention how 'open' it is, however I want to know about the DRM of it? IMHO you can't be fully open with DRM.

jdp23• 16 years ago

apparently they mean 'open' in the sense of 'restricting users via DRM' and 'locks out most of the world'

izendejas• 16 years ago

Looks like they definitely just scanned some books. I downloaded a sample of "Information Theory and Statistical Learning" and the font was too pixelated and thus unreadable on my android device unless I zoomed in. Zooming in only evidences the pixelation even more.

An O'Reilly book seemed fine, so I want to imagine that technical/math-notation intensive books are hard to optimize for e-reading. Anyone have some knowledge about this? How hard is it to make a technical book's digital font easier to read if you don't already have the LaTeX/pdf?

commieneko• 16 years ago

I've been going nuts the last couple of months buying books from O'Reilly. It's great, I can put them on my iPad, my iPod Touch, my laptop, my desktop, whatever can read an ePub or a PDF. And no one can "recall" them. I have zero interest in any other deal as far as ebooks are concerned.

bobobjorn• 16 years ago

"Google eBooks is all about choice, so you can use just about any device you own to read any book, anywhere." Aslong as you buy the book from google and use googles software. Isnt that the oposite of choice?

rb2k_2• 16 years ago

Works fine using a US VPN from Germany

steve193• 16 years ago

"Google eBooks can be downloaded onto all eReader devices that run Adobe Digital Editions"[0]

In other words: "Adobe DRM"

[0] http://books.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=179863

mcantor• 16 years ago

What? No Kindle support?

What kind of asinine universe are we creating for ourselves? This is what I never understood about iTunes:

1. The world discovers MP3s: music that you can listen to on any digital music player! You know how you can take a tape cassette and play it in any cassette player, and hear music? It's like that! Yay!

2. iTunes sells iTunes music: music that you can listen to on... Apple devices! Wait, what?

You mean I can download digital music from iTunes, but it might not work on my digital music player?

It must be because it's better, then. What's that? There's no technical advantage? I am confused!

Now it's happening again! We have eBooks of various assortments. You read eBooks with eReaders. Unless they're incompatible. How can you tell? Well, it depends on where you bought each of them. It's getting to where you need a damn chart.

We don't make cars that only run on certain fucking roads. Why do we make music that only plays on certain fucking music players?!

I know all about DRM, and the incentives behind it. I know "why" it works this way. I'm just lamenting how stupid it is that we are making things more complicated, and less inter-operable. It's fucking 2010. We're in the future now. We should know better.

djacobs• 16 years ago

An e-book's container format is (essentially) orthogonal to whether or not it has DRM.

Kindle uses a convoluted, badly designed container, where everyone else uses ePub, which is an open standard.

Bottom line: There is not Kindle support because Kindle is too picky.

inklesspen2• 16 years ago

iTunes sells AAC music files: music that you can listen to on any device that supports AAC, which is a part of the MPEG-4 standard (just like MP3 is a part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards). This AAC music used to be sold with Apple DRM on it, but no longer does. And of course there is a technical advantage; AAC sounds better at low bit rates than MP3 does.

ivankirigin2• 16 years ago

Someone should make an ebooks site that uses Dropbox as a backend. Local file control is a really important part of keeping files secure in the cloud. Controled from a single company is really just control with a single point of failure.

unshift• 16 years ago

dropbox not being a single company?

ivankirigin2• 16 years ago

I meant that you'll have a copy on all of your machines.

handrake2• 16 years ago

I think Kindle works the same way. It's just that they can come and seize any of your books whenever they feel like it. Dropbox will not be much different because if they delete a file on their server and enforce updates on all of your machines, it will lead to the same result.

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