Scanning hundreds of thousands of books and uploading them online seems not to be enough for Google. The search giant is now nurturing plans to build an online bookstore in the near future.
According to CEO Eric Schmidt, the success or failure of this project depends on whether publishers and copyright holders are willing to grant licenses.
Pay to Download
As the search market, its traditional stronghold, begins to saturate, Google has hurried to expand its kingdom into other realms. Last week, the company launched an online video store during co-founder Larry Page’s speech at CES 2006. To purchase premium content, users must pay Google and then download it to their devices.
Unlike the paid video download service, e-books have actually been on the market for many years. The only problem is that the concept has struggled to take off. Recently at CES, Sony attempted to stimulate demand for e-books by launching a handheld device that makes reading e-books easier. The company also partnered with several major publishers to sell e-book readers online.
When asked if Google has similar plans, Eric Schmidt replied, “If copyright issues are resolved, I will consider that.”
Both Schmidt and Page are doing their best to reassure the public about the controversial book digitization project that Google is undertaking. According to them, the “Google Book Search” project aims only to build the largest book catalog in the world and does not intend to “compete” for content protected by copyright law.
“We will not allow users to read books for free (or paid) until we receive a nod from publishers,” Schmidt shrugged, adding that publishers would certainly consider this, as it helps them sell more books.
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