Nearly every panel discussion and meeting at BEA mentioned digital books in one form or another. Not to be left out, Google promised to create a digital bookselling platform by the end of the year.
The NY Times reported Google’s BEA promise to enter into the digital book marketplace. While details of the new program are still fuzzy, publishers will be able to determine the price for the e-books and readers will be able to read the titles even if they are not connected to the Internet.
Here’s more from the article: “[U]sers can search up to about 20 percent of the content of those books and can follow links from Google to online retailers like Amazon.com and the Web site of Barnes & Noble to buy either paper or electronic versions of the books…Google’s program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones.”