Google's book search program will give publishers a new option to monetize their content: sell online access. Currently a very small part of the books indexed by Google can be read entirely and most are public domain books.
"With online access, users who discover a book through Google Book Search will be able to pay for immediate access to its full contents. (...) The book will be available to users only through their browser, and only when they've signed in with their personal account. Users cannot save a copy on their computer or copy pages from the book."
So you'll not actually buy a book (even in a digital format), you'll buy the right to read it online. As the price should be much smaller than for a PDF, this might be an option if you just need some information from a book.
Google doesn't think this system could be a substitute for book stores. "You may just want to rent a travel guide for the holiday or buy a chapter of a book. Ultimately, it will be the readers who decide how books are read," says Jens Redmer, from Google Europe.
Homework:
1. What do you think it's the future of books?
2. Would you read books online?
Labels: Book Search
said on January 21, 2007 4:27 AM PDT:
I would certainly read textbooks online. High-priced textbooks are getting out of control at my university.
said on January 21, 2007 5:35 AM PDT:
The cost of a PDF file should not be more expensive that viewing it through Google Books.
You can get PDF writers for free nowadays , even if you pick up a one you need to purchase it is only less than £50 at the most which can be used for x amount of books so the cost is offset.
John said on January 21, 2007 9:45 AM PDT:
What stops people from print-screening or extracting the content of the book
into a PDF or another digital format? If I can see it on my screen, I can save it... Right?
Yes, of course you can save pages as photos and use a OCR program to digitize them. But you'll have to create a script and most people won't do that. Besides, Google might stop you if you try to automatically get too many pages.
This is great. Another example of how google is spreading information better than anyone.
said on January 21, 2007 3:57 PM PDT:
I wouldn't read a book on-line. At least, not on my laptop. But if this works for my Palm I could see myself reading on that. It's more hand-sized and easy to maneuver than a full-on computer.
said on January 21, 2007 8:34 PM PDT:
Really interesting. However not allowing downloads limits its use
said on May 24, 2007 7:26 AM PDT:
how to save the google books......any one pls help me......
advance thanks
I really think it would be a good idea for google to have a flat fee to access it's library and it would share its revenue with the authors based on unique page views or something...
Right now, I own an online book site but I can only post public domain books (publicliterature.org). Do I have the right to scan books and do what google did? I doubt it.
