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Has anyone else got the fully updated version of Google Books yet? I realized last night that I did a new install of Google Books on a new phone which is probably why I had the most updated version of Google Books.
As for free vs ads, Google swallows every bit of data they can gather on everyone so they can sell targeted ads across their services. I don't think anyone is under the illusion that Google is noble or giving away apps out of the kindness of their heart. But if, and I know it has not been fully proved yet, Google is inserting ads into books on top of the info-gathering they already do to sell us to their advertising customers, we need to clearly know this is a new cost of using their apps. I would accept it is not Google doing this except for the clear link in the ad that says "shop" and doesn't take me to Nelson (the publisher of the book) but to the Google Play store with lots of books published by a wide range of publishers.
There is only one reason I have bothered at all with Google Books app. It is the only one that when I am away from a wifi source that will quickly load a book with all the formatting with the size of a Bible. I have purchased both Fbreader and Moon+ reader and they are my preferred ebook apps on mobile, but they both suck at loading a huge book with lots of links and formatting. Moon+ says it can't load the book, Fbreader will only load it after several minutes. So when Google Books instantly loads a big book like that it comes in handy. Otherwise I would never use Google Books. And this is the first book I bought from them after loading the new app, so you understand my confusion about seeing an ad every time I open the book. I have not heard back from Google about my complaint. I would like it confirmed that either Google or the Publisher is doing this, either way it is not good and customers should be aware of it.
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