Who needs a pricey Amazon Kindle when you can instantly access up to 1.5 million books on your iPhone? Thanks to a new application from Google, Book Search is now accessible from your mobile phone.
That means you can now search public-domain (non-copyrighted) books on your iPhone or Android-powered device for free. Amazon's Kindle, a mobile device that allows users to download full- length
books, retails at $360 and costs up to $10 per download (note: for copyrighted books).
As VentureBeat's Anthony Ha notes, there are some drawbacks to the mobile site. One problem is the
frequent errors that come from the pages having been scanned using Google's optical character recognition technology. Another drawback is the fact that copyrighted books--basically anything written in
the last century--are not available on the site. Lastly, Ha says the iPhone interface isn't very good, although there are other iPhone eBook readers you can download.
"Basically, this is
perfect if you happen to be 'buying your postage' (to quote Google's blog post) and want to read "Moby Dick," says Ha. "Still, the fact that Google bothered to create this site is another sign that
smartphones are becoming a viable format for eBook reading."
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