Laura Miller on Google Ebook Store

Snooty Baronet · 12-08-2010, 11:15 AM

Excellent article in Salon about Google Ebooks. Ironically, its greatest weakness, Laura Miller points out, is its search function: "you can tell it was devised by people who know next to nothing about the book trade."

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_mil...gle_ebookstore

khalleron · 12-08-2010, 02:03 PM

deleted

leebase · 12-09-2010, 10:27 AM

To much "theory". In "theory" google's book store is great. In practice, it stinks. The iPad app is terrible. It downloads each new page instead of the whole book. No landscape mode.

Millions of crappily scanned books are not a "great feature".

I rate Google Bookstore a failure. Have no intention of using it in it's present form.

Lee

hgwlackey · 12-09-2010, 10:53 AM

The iPad app downloaded the full books for me, both free books and books I had paid for (including one I paid for that "has no download files available"--which was the reason I installed the app in the first place). Once the books downloaded, I was able to turn the iPad's wifi off (it's a wifi only model) and still read them.

All of the books I've paid for look good, both on my iPad and, in the case of those that have epub downloads available, on my Sony.

And I like that I have the option of looking at the scan or the flowed text when I'm on the iPad.

I rate Google's Bookstore as on par with any other ebook retailer, and I'll buy from them whenever:

1. The book I want is not available elsewhere, whether Google offers an epub download with it or not, or

2. The book I want is only otherwise available in Kindle Topaz format and it's the same price as or cheaper than Amazon and download files are available, or

3. Google has the lowest price and download files are available

Grimm · 12-09-2010, 01:51 PM

Stopped reading after "Salon" but thanks anyway.

SCION · 12-09-2010, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimm

Stopped reading after "Salon" but thanks anyway.

Harsh!

Grimm · 12-10-2010, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCION

Harsh!

So is the bias on Salon.com

traponk · 12-12-2010, 02:35 AM

I like that the search in the Google Ebook Store searches the text in ebooks, so I can find ebooks that talk about what I'm looking for, even if it's not in the title.

The web-reader has good quality as far as I've seen, and it's a nice feature. If I wanted to, I could go online on any computer (like at the library, or a friend's pc) and pull up my ebooks without having to have an app downloaded.

The scanned Google Books I've checked out have the option of flowing the text or showing the scanned image. If you flow the text, it looks as good as any other ebook (as long as it's been scanned correctly, which a small minority of them have not). If I download a free Google Book onto my Nook it looks awful, but it looks a lot better from the Google Ebook Store.

I haven't tested any apps, but it would be nice if they had pc apps for linux/windows/apple!

12-08-2010, 11:15 AM	#1
Snooty Baronet Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Iphone 4	Laura Miller on Google Ebook Store Excellent article in Salon about Google Ebooks. Ironically, its greatest weakness, Laura Miller points out, is its search function: "you can tell it was devised by people who know next to nothing about the book trade." http://www.salon.com/books/laura_mil...gle_ebookstore

12-08-2010, 02:03 PM	#2
khalleron Kate Posts: 1,681 Karma: 3165009 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Oregon, United States Device: Nexus 7 2013, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Forma	deleted Last edited by khalleron; 12-08-2010 at 02:04 PM. Reason: sometimes i get snarky but i don't like myself that way. sorry.

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12-09-2010, 10:27 AM	#3
leebase Karma Kameleon Posts: 2,932 Karma: 26616647 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: iPad Mini, iPhone X, Kindle Fire Tab HD 8, Walmart Onn	To much "theory". In "theory" google's book store is great. In practice, it stinks. The iPad app is terrible. It downloads each new page instead of the whole book. No landscape mode. Millions of crappily scanned books are not a "great feature". I rate Google Bookstore a failure. Have no intention of using it in it's present form. Lee

12-09-2010, 10:53 AM	#4
hgwlackey Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 9550 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Tennessee, USA Device: Kindle Touch, HTC Thunderbolt	The iPad app downloaded the full books for me, both free books and books I had paid for (including one I paid for that "has no download files available"--which was the reason I installed the app in the first place). Once the books downloaded, I was able to turn the iPad's wifi off (it's a wifi only model) and still read them. All of the books I've paid for look good, both on my iPad and, in the case of those that have epub downloads available, on my Sony. And I like that I have the option of looking at the scan or the flowed text when I'm on the iPad. I rate Google's Bookstore as on par with any other ebook retailer, and I'll buy from them whenever: 1. The book I want is not available elsewhere, whether Google offers an epub download with it or not, or 2. The book I want is only otherwise available in Kindle Topaz format and it's the same price as or cheaper than Amazon and download files are available, or 3. Google has the lowest price and download files are available

12-09-2010, 01:51 PM	#5
Grimm DRM killer Posts: 471 Karma: 793120 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Just northeast of Atlanta, GA Device: ASUS Transformer Prime (Sold: Nook, Kindle 3, Nook Color, Nook STR)	Stopped reading after "Salon" but thanks anyway.

12-12-2010, 02:35 AM	#8
traponk Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: rooted e-ink Nook	I like that the search in the Google Ebook Store searches the text in ebooks, so I can find ebooks that talk about what I'm looking for, even if it's not in the title. The web-reader has good quality as far as I've seen, and it's a nice feature. If I wanted to, I could go online on any computer (like at the library, or a friend's pc) and pull up my ebooks without having to have an app downloaded. The scanned Google Books I've checked out have the option of flowing the text or showing the scanned image. If you flow the text, it looks as good as any other ebook (as long as it's been scanned correctly, which a small minority of them have not). If I download a free Google Book onto my Nook it looks awful, but it looks a lot better from the Google Ebook Store. I haven't tested any apps, but it would be nice if they had pc apps for linux/windows/apple!

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