[Stephen is founder of e-book retailer eBooks.com. The eb20 Reader he's introducing could become quite the killer application -- I'm curious if you agree. --Alex]
At Wallcraft's suggestion, here's some information about our new-ish online ebook reader. I say new-ish, because it's been out for nearly a year, but has received a fair amount of attention in the past few weeks because of partnerships we've announced with
Dymocks Booksellers in Australia and
Cambridge University Press. Both companies chose eb20 as their platform for providing online access to their customers.
Because of the commercial nature of this post, I'll keep my comments to a minimum, but I would be glad to hear your thoughts on the reader, and especially any criticism or suggestions.
You can see the reader in action
here. To access the ebook, you'll need to register, which is free.
The idea behind eb20 Reader is that anyone who buys a book from eBooks.com or Dymocks also acquires perpetual online access to the work via eb20. Almost all of the 400 publishers who provide ebooks to Ebooks Corp have signed on to the eb20 program.
One of the virtues of eb20 Reader is that it's really just a web page, and there's nothing for the user to install. This is particularly good for people who are new to ebooks, who often get beaten to a pulp by the complexities involved in DRM reader software. But also, many of our customers have said they rather like the sense of security that we're minding their books for them. If their device is lost or dies, they can always log in and start reading where they left off; or download another copy.
The two biggest deficiencies at present are a) there's no zoom function (which we're working on now) and b) no read-aloud function, which is a whole big thing. Not scheduled yet.
Best wishes,
Stephen Cole
Managing Director
Ebooks Corporation Limited