So the word is out that Google is now letting users download books for free from the Google Books site. I went ahead and decided to try it because I wanted to see how they would prevent other sites from downloading the PDF and redistributing it themselves.
I found Aesop’s “Fables” and downloaded the 308 page book. The first thing that I was greeted with after downloading the PDF was a “Guidelines” page. It went over the usual “non-commercial use” and “keep it legal” stuff that we would expect it to have. That was just the first page though…you know that isn’t all they would do.
They also mention that they added a “Digitized by Google” watermark to each page. Interesting enough they say “please do not remove it” but they don’t say that you can’t remove it. I would have thought that the watermark served some sort of legal purpose but they say it is there to inform people about the project and to help them find additional materials.
The watermark is very light and can hardly be seen though. Would I read an entire book this way? It’s hard to say but I think they need to come out with their own book reader so that it can resize the window to eliminate the margins that are around their scanned images. If you read the book online they have a nice layout to it but most people wouldn’t want to read the whole thing on a Web site.
Whatever you do make sure you return the book on time! You don’t want to get a fine!
| Update: |
The Official Google Blog has finally made the announcement and they list several books that you can download for free.
|
I know I am not blind. Still… I cannot find any download button. I read this news on other IT-blogs, some with screenshots: I do not have a download button!!! In the above link and in others… Maybe because I am in Romania? Google Books check the IP and maybe this download facility is open only in US? What is the experience of other non-US users?
[img169.imageshack.us] with no download
You’re right, you do not have that option. I didn’t realize that they must be restricting it to certain countries. Can you view the entire book online?
I have a lot of books in electronic format. However, I hardly ever read them because I do not want to sit at my computer desk reading them. Also I have yet to purchase a notebook computer and PDA’s have too small of a screen.
We need a universal ebook reader that has a screen about the same size as an american paperback book.
“Related information”, “Bibliographic information” and “Buy this book”.
That’s all… At the link you indicate in your article I have nothing more to read. But searching “Aesop Fables” I get a list and some have “Limited preview”. Your above link is as “No Preview Available”, as can be see [books.google.com]
So, if you, in the link from the article, have the text and download button, it’s clear that they limit by IP.
Other non-US readers of this articole? Their experience?
PS: It’s not the first time when us, people outside US, have limited or no access to good stuff… It’s a way of calling us in US?
OldManDeath: Sounds like you are talking about something [engadget.com]
Yep, they must be limiting your IP then but you could try to get around that by going through a proxy. There’s a [addons.mozilla.org] that makes it a little easier.
From someone outside US: No download button here…
I agree to the point about not wanting to read at the screen – my eyes are already damaged enough. The readers that are soon to be released do well to avoid backlit screens and find different ways of displaying information – though what I would love to see is one that is the size and shape of a nice paperback, so you wouldn’t feel you were missing out on the entire book experience. I guess giving them touch screens so that English students could add notes would also increase the appeal amongst academics.
That is exactly what I am talking about. I have seen this article in the past. The only things I do not like are the fact that it is made by Sony. Sony has a history of having proprietary things in their devices that make them fail (formats, etc.) Look the the failure of the UMD movies for the PSP.
I would also want a color screen. Having used black & white versus color screen rugged PDA’s for work, the color ones are much easier to read, even for plain B&W text.
I am curious if you can plug a flash drive into the USB slot and it will recognize it?
I could not find if it uses Sony’s Memory Stick format for storagfe.
I used the links from Official Google Blog. And I can (yeee) download L’Inferno, but I can’t download Hamlet! It seems that Dante is more open to Europe, than (non-US) Shakespeare.
Univ of Virginia’s [etext.lib.virginia.edu] has a nice collection of ebooks for MS Reader and Palm Reader. There are web versions too many of which are illustrated
Someone over at Techcrunch suggests using Google’s translation service as a proxy. Preety cool uh.
Thanks Chad. I bookmarked that site because they do have a ton of books on there. They even have Web versions of the books in case you don’t want to download the eBook.