Google to Begin Selling E-Books; Will Let Publishers Set Price

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 1, 2009 - 10:43am.

New York - Google (NASD: GOOG) plans to begin selling e-books through its search engine, The New York Times reported on Sunday, in a move that will give current e-book giant Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) competition in the nascent industry. The company has been in discussions with publishers on the plan, and is said to be open to allowing publishers to set their own prices; at Amazon.com's e-book store, all titles sell for $9.99, and Amazon takes 70% of profits.

The e-book retail offering from Google will sell online access to the titles, which will then also be viewable offline in cached versions stored in a browser, Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, told The Times.

Users will be able to then read the texts on any Internet-connected device, including mobile phones.

The service will be separate from Google's existing Book Search product, which allows users to search for digital titles and view up to 20% of a book online.

That service spawned a legal fight with publishers and a settlement that it currently the subject of a Justice Department probe.

In related news, CNET covered a new report from Forrester Research that posits there is ample room for new competitors to take advantages of the shortcomings of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10253199-93.html