Google Editions запускается в 2010 году в США
Google Editions will launch in the US this year, with international launches to follow soon after, delegates at Tools of Change Frankfurt have heard. But the Google Editions will not be available on the Kindle at launch.
Google’s Abraham Murray said at launch there would be over 400,000 paid-for titles available from publisher partners, along with 2m public domain titles, but that more titles would be made available once the service opened internationally. Once bought, Google Editions will be available for reading on multiple devices, and anywhere in the world. “Territorial rights will govern the sale, but not the access,” he said. But not at launch on the dominant e-book device, Amazon’s Kindle, though Murray said Google Editions was an open platform and open to collaboration with any hardware manufacturers and partners.
Murray said Google would work with US publishers on “agency model” terms, though admitted that this was not a model Google had sought. “In the US we will meet the needs of the market, and we are accepting the agency model in the US, but we haven’t gone after it, and as that plays out we will follow.”
Murray said Google was “delivering a platform for e-books that will be synched across all retailers”, adding that books would “follow the user, won’t get lost or stuck at the store, and will be ever-present in a digital library”. Google will also offer a web-based reader, though at launch this won’t be available for offline reading.
Murray added: “We are enabling booksellers to sell the content instead of going out of business, and enabling readers to buy and read on any device, and be assurd that the content will still be around.” He added: “Nobody else is giving the bookseller a chance as we move to e-books.”
Если коротко: Google Editions запускается в 2010 году в США, в Европе — с 2011 года. На открытии будет 400 тыс платных книг и 2 млн паблик домен. Книги будут доступны на разных устройствах, и без территориальных ограничений, поскольку нет факта продажи. Оффлайнового доступа на первых порах не будет. Не будет и доступа с Kindle.
В общем, ничего нового, но хотя бы — проект жив.