Google makes 1.5 million books available on mobile, free

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google-book-search.jpgOver the past couple of years, Google’s been industriously scanning, cataloguing and digitising millions of books whose content has passed into the public domain. These books have been available for a while on Google Book Search, but now they’re available on mobile too.

If you point your iPhone or Android browser towards http://books.google.com/m, then you’ll find mobile-optimised versions of the books which display text, rather than the digital images provided on the non-mobile edition.

I should admit, too, that the headline’s slightly misleading – 1.5 million books are available in the USA, with just half a million of those available outside the US. That’s a shame, but almost certainly due to copyright issues – books in the public domain in the USA may well not be in the rest of the world.

Google Book Search for Mobile (via Inside Google Book Search)

More about books: Vodafone extends entertainment portfolio with exciting new “books” option | British Library making rare books virtually available online

Duncan Geere
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2 comments

  • My humble little N82 is now a capable phone, camera, email client, FM/DAB/Internet Radio, music player, video player, sync’d web browser (Opera Mini), online gaming device (N-Gage), multi-protocol instant messenger and VOIP handset (Nimbuzz), USB/BT/Wi-Fi driven webcam (Mobiola), DLNA media server and wireless NAS…

    …and now it can be an eReader.

    I’ll say it again – epic!

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