IDG News Service - Google plans by the end of the year to give publishers a way to sell online digital versions of their books through a partner program that now allows publishers to submit books for company's search engine results, according to a statement issued Monday.
The move will put the Internet company in direct competition with Amazon.com. It's also part of a Google strategy to promote an open platform for reading and accessing books.
The Google statement comes a day after The New York Times reported that Google was planning to sell e-books online.
In a move that seems to target Amazon.com's Kindle business, Google said in a statement that it wants to build and support a "digital book ecosystem" to allow its partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any web-enabled device, whether it is a PC, a smart phone, a netbook or a dedicated reading device, the company said.
"Eventually, we hope to extend this functionality to retailers who embed Google Previews on their website," Google said.
E-books downloaded from Amazon.com's Kindle Store can only currently be read by its own reader Kindle, and Apple's iPhone and iPod touch running Kindle software.
Competitor Amazon.com introduced last month a new version of its Kindle reader. The new Kindle DX, with a bigger screen, is designed to better present newspaper and magazine content than earlier versions. The online retailer also said last month it launched a Kindle Store optimized for the Safari web browser on the iPhone. The store has 280,000 e-books for sale.
Free Insider GuideCopyright © 1994 - 2012 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited. Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are trademarks of International Data Group Inc.
