Google doubles book-scan publisher partners, has no plans for e-book reader
According to a Reuters interview with Santiago de la Mora, head of Google’s book partnerships in Europe, Google has announced that it has doubled the number of publishers participating in its book-scan program over the past year, from 10,000 to 20,000. These publishers allow Google to scan the contents of books they publish and offer up snippets of those books to searchers.
Among those publishers that have signed up is Bertelsmann’s Random House, “the world’s largest non-factual publisher.” The article does not state whether these publishers’ participation is expected to have any effect on the pending publishing-industry litigation against Google for scanning library books that are still under copyright protection.
When asked whether Google was considering introducing an e-reading device to compete with Sony or Amazon’s offerings, de la Mora said that Google was watching the market but had no plans for such a device of its own at this time. “We’re promoting on line the sale of physical books. That’s the offering. Having said that, we’re always open to the evolutions of the marketplace.”
October 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Welcome back!!
October 16th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Rumours of an entry-level Google PC came to nothing, and everything they do seems focused on software rather than hardware. I’d be very surprised if Google produced their own device, though you never can tell. At their present rate of expansion, “Google Earth” soon won’t just refer to their mapping service, but to the planet itself!
October 16th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
In other news, Tmobile announces its new android phone. Time will tell if any reading software will appear for that platform.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Richard Herley mentions Google’s focus on software, and Robert Nagle brings up Android. Google may not itself build an e-book hardware device, but its library of scanned books and maybe its software could become important. The author of the eWeek article, “Why Ebooks and Ebook Readers Will Eventually Succeed“ that was linked on this blog earlier thinks that Google Android will be important for e-books. He discusses the need for a “great (natural) user interface” and says:
Of course the iPhone and iPod Touch can support open e-book standards. For example, the Stanza application can read multiple formats including epub and html as well as proprietary standards Mobipocket and Microsoft LIT (without DRM).
I think that the full success of cell phones as e-book readers hinges on larger displays. In fact multi-screen displays with concealed hinges would be great.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
HP also announced it was going to do a touchscreen phone.