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Google has launched its long-awaited digital books platform, Google eBooks, in the United States with hundreds of thousands of titles for sale.
Web users outside of the US will have to wait until 2011 for the platform, formerly branded Google Editions, to launch in their country. When a UK browser clicks on the Google">http://books.google.com/ebooks">Google ebookstore, they see a message that says: "Google is working with publishers around the world to let you buy the latest ebooks from top authors. In the meantime, you can still browse millions of free and public domain Google eBooks and read them effortlessly across your devices."
On launch Google is promising the latest bestsellers like James Patterson’s Cross Fire and Jonathon (sic) Franzen’s Freedom, as well as other New York Times bestsellers.
The service allows readers to buy e-books from the Google ebookstore or from an independent bookshop. Google said almost 4,000 publishers have signed up to the service but said pricing depended on individual publisher agreement. The digital company refused to discuss revenue share but said in the standard agreement, the majority of revenue from sale of an e-book will go to the publisher.
The e-books are stored in an online library, allowing them to be read across laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones and e-book readers. The books are stored in a 'cloud' that is password protected, meaning a reader can access their access their account like they would a Google Mail email account. The e-books can be read on Android and Apple device using free apps, where users can select font, font size, day/night reading mode and line spacing.
The announcement has been long trailed with Jason Hanley, Google's strategic partner, development, telling delegates at The Bookseller's FutureBook conference last week of its pre-Christmas launch. He said: "The order of when we roll out in the UK, Europe and Australia is yet to be decided on depends on the US launch, which will be good and fine but not perfect."