Will Google Editions Raid Amazon, B&N e-Bookshelves?
搜尋引擎Google將推出電子書服務─Google Editions．目前競爭者Amazon和B&N只能使用自家研發的閱讀系統閱讀，例如Kindle或者nook； Google希望消費者可以”read anywhere”，不需安裝特定的軟體或者透過特定的平台才可閱讀，讀者可以使用不同的個人設備如：平板電腦、PC、手機、電子書等來閱讀電子書籍，蘋果iPhone、iPad使用者也可透過他們的Gmail帳號享受這項服務。讀者可直接向Google買書，或透過該服務向Amazon和Barnes & Noble等其他網路書店購買，Google的投入，讓電子書市場的未來更加精彩可期。
You can thank the e-readers Kindle and nook, just released in a color version, for pushing mass adoption of e-books.
Forrester Research says e-book sales could reach close to $1 billion in 2010, over three times the sales last year. But now that Amazon and Barnes & Noble have done the heavy lifting, the big bad wolf is getting into the market.
Search giant Google is on the verge of launching Google Editions — which was announced earlier this year in the wake of a landmark Google Books agreement and hotly debated since — in the US by the end of the year, and internationally early next year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the new service will enable users to buy e-books from multiple online retailers as well as Google. Users add the books to an online library connected to a Google account and can access them on virtually any device with a Web browser.
The Google Editions "read anywhere" model is what makes the service different. Google's e-book play relies on cloud computing and will be device-agnostic, not dependent on a particular platform or device, like the Kindle or nook. Amazon, with around 65% of the e-book market, sells e-books through its Kindle store that can be read on different devices, but they must run Kindle software.
Amazon's Kindle, which is being advertised on television, is already under pressure from the nook and iPad. As a result, Amazon agreed to change its pricing structure to be more favorable towards publishers of magazines and newspapers. Books are a different story, however.
The details about Google Editions have yet to be worked out, the Journal reports, but the American Booksellers Association says more than 200 independent booksellers in the US might participate in marketing books through Google Editions.
One of the biggest questions is how much revenue Google will share with the booksellers. Google has already secured deals with several major book publishers so it will likely be able to offer hundreds of thousands of titles for purchase at competitive prices.
Google, of course, is the Big Gorilla in search yet it hasn't made major inroads into e-commerce, at least not until now. But that search engine, employed by some 190 million users monthly in the U.S. alone, could make Google Editions an instant leader in e-book sales. Google wants websites to refer visitors to Google Editions, and it will also give booksellers the ability to sell Google Editions through their own websites.
Another impending Google move will drive it even further into e-commerce. Google reportedly is about to acquire Groupon for north of $5 billion. Groupon is the popular "deal-a-day" site with a social component that supports local businesses. Groupon has about 35 million subscribers worldwide, with 17 million subscribers in North America.
One way or the other, it seems inevitable that Google will continue to seek revenue from sources other than its own advertising programs. With e-books, e-deals, and other such initiatives in the works, Google will become a major force to be reckoned with in e-commerce as well as search.
LINK: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/12/01/Google-Editions-US-Launch.aspx#continue