GOOGLE BOOKS STOREGoogle ebooks store (contemporary books as well as the free ones we've accessed) launched today, to challenge Amazon, B&N, Sony, Borders, Apple, et al.
They are not offering lower prices because they've signed Agency agreements with the usual large publishers and the prices are the same at all stores. They're apparently paying independent publishers 52% on a sale vs the 70% that Amazon and Apple offer.
In Google's case, a main feature is to read your books in the "Cloud" (on the Web), and each person's books will be stored there the way they are at Amazon, except that you read Amazon's own books on the Kindle or on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry, Android-based devices, PC, and Mac using the free Kindle reading apps.
The advantage for Amazon customers has been the ability to sync the reading between one's various devices and this syncing has been relatively seamless.
Google will sell the books with an emphasis on the ability to read them on the web from anywhere on any device that can browse the web -- and that means you'd be connected to the web while reading your book and there is then the ability for Google to use advertisements during the reading.
Apparently, you'll also be able to download your purchased books to many devices for which the digital-rights mechanism used is covered, but they won't be compatible with the Kindle's digital-rights method.
How they will cover sync'g for those books that go on individual devices is unclear but they're not offering this. If you read your books on the web, then your last page would always be noted on the web.
Highlighting and annotations: Haven't read anything on that yet.
Customer service is probably also a new area for them to think about as I've never been able to reach Google support for anything.
Amazon allows refunds within 7 days for e-books that have problems, badly formatted, unlinked table of contents, or when you felt you didn't mean to order it. B&N's general policy is no refunds even if the book has mssing pages (I read this on their forums).
OPRAH TODAY AND THE KINDLE GIVEAWAY PLUS DOUBLE BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Oprah thanked Amazon for providing each audience member a "3G Kindle" (UK: K3) and said, while holding the physical books, that she still loves books but that if you travel, you've "gotta" love the Kindle. Then they gave the audience both types of books :-).
The audience reacted as if they had won expensive cars :-) but they did get the Kindle model that can download books and do web lookups from anywhere you are and does not depend on being at a WiFi hotspot.
As mentioned before, the show featured author Jonathan Franzan.
OPRAH'S 65th BOOK CLUB PICK: Charles Dickens double-header -- A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations
Amazon's PR says that the two Oprah-recommended books today (Charles Dickens special) are FREE at Amazon, although the Kindlestore top-right-corner ad leads to the "enriched" double-book for $7.99, which includes: "illustrations of 18th century fashion and culture in Dickens’s Victorian world, the early reception for both..., a filmography of Dickens’s novels, further reading about the author as well as what informed the thematic elements of these classic novels."
If not interested in the special illustrations, filmography, and further reading, here is a quick way to find Dickens' free books on Amazon, and these are sorted by how well they have been selling -- the $7.99 Oprah double-book heads the list despite a request for only free Dickens books.
As most Kindle owners know, Amazon has about 20,000 other free classics at Amazon, which one can sync between devices and also there are millions of free out-of-copyright-books available to read on the Kindle at the various sites mentioned in the ongoing Free Kindle Books blog article.
Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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