Amazon is not standing by idly with the arrival of Google eBooks in the digital book market and responds with Kindle for the web, to read ebooks via browser.
Kindle for the web is Amazon’s web application that allows you to read ebooks from any browser, even if you don’t have a Kindle, the renowned ebook reader and flagship product in Amazon’s catalog. In reality, the application – which has gone somewhat unnoticed by many – has been available for several weeks, but the arrival on the market of Google eBooks has stirred up the industry, revealing moves that could curb Google’s rise in the e-publishing market.
What actually changes? Every Amazon ebook can now be read not only on Kindle but also on BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, or any type of PC.
While Amazon has allowed this since September, but only for the first chapter of ebooks, texts can now be browsed in their entirety, even without downloading.
This new feature is currently available in the United States in beta, awaiting the same system to be rolled out in Europe and subsequently in Italy.
Kindle for the web is not exactly comparable to the cloud offered by Google eBooks, but it comes very close: with the motto “Every site can now be a bookstore“, Amazon is certainly not standing idly by watching the web Google is weaving, and indeed, it is responding firmly by enabling writers, publishers, and bloggers to offer books to their readers through affiliation.
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