• CNet, Tuesday, September 28, 2010 10:21 AM

Amazon has rolled out Kindle for the Web, which lets users view and share book samples directly through their web browsers. "Amazon is also encouraging bloggers and website owners who are members of Amazon Associates Program to embed samples of Kindle books on their websites and earn referral fees from Amazon 'when customers complete book purchases using the links on their websites,'" writes CNet. Still in beta, Kindle for the Web is similar in some ways to Scribd, which bills itself as the YouTube for documents and a popular destination for viewing and sharing documents and book samples, CNet notes.

Similar to Scribd, Amazon for the Web has a social component, mostly by letting users share samples on Facebook and Twitter. "But Kindle for the Web is more geared to driving readers to buy the full e-books (and perhaps paper books), which reside on Amazon," CNet points out. Head over to Amazon's demo page to see how "selected Amazon book overview pages" will have an integrated "Read first chapter FREE" button.

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