Company Google plans to open its own online store of electronic publications by the end of 2010. The service will be called Google Editions and will "grow" out of another company service - Google Books, which allowed you to search and partially view books online.
The service was planned to be launched in the summer, but the process was delayed by various technical and legal difficulties. To legal complications Google no stranger, Google Books has been repeatedly attacked and sued on allegations of copyright infringement.
Books in Google Editions can be read online using a browser, that is, users will not be tied to a certain type of e-reader, smartphone or other device, and we are not talking about downloading special software. At the same time, it is declared that books can also be downloaded for offline reading in a format suitable for any device.
Book publishers received an offer from Google, which is expressed in the figure 52% of the total revenue for books sold. It is not yet known whether the largest publishers will agree to such conditions, given that the average rate of the main competitors Google – Amazon, Barnes & Noble и Apple, in such cases far exceeds 52%.