Rumors have been around for a while that Google was looking to get into the eBook race with Apple, Amazon, and Barnes and Nobel. Today, they made that rumor a reality: Google has announced the Google eBookstore.
Google has added 3 million Google eBooks to their eBookstore, and they’ve managed to put together a ton of applications, including some for iOS, to support a multitude of devices. Free applications for Android and iOS are available, as well as a “full-featured web reader.”
The interesting twist to the Google eBookstore is that you’ll be able to purchase eBooks from a multitude of sellers, including Powell’s, Alibris, and other American Booksellers Association companies. All books will appear on the same bookshelf, no matter where you buy them from.
That’s pretty exciting news, and something that we wouldn’t mind seeing in the iBookstore. We know it would never happen, but having to open our ebooks from the iBookstore in iBooks, and Kindle books in another app is starting to get a little bit stale. “One app to rule them all” would be a nice little change of pace for Apple. Again, it’ll never happen, but feel free to keep dreaming about it.
The Google eBooks application for iOS will be available on the App Store shortly.
In other news, Google’s still using engineers to design their user interfaces.
Article Via Google Blog
