Introduction
Reading books is probably a timeless past time and a hobby that everyone should enjoy. Not only are there millions of books for reading, but there are also different forms of books that you can use. Books.google is one example of an incredible resource and shopping base for book fanatics and lovers.
History
Books.google is a website dedicated by the search engine giant for book information and shopping. It contains a list of e books available as a paid download. There are also around 3 million books that are free to download. Book worms will find the site a delight to use as there are plenty of titles to choose from.
Features
The Google company teamed up with publishers all over the world to create a Google bookstore for those who want to buy books or download free e books. These books are available in the store .
The advantage of buying books from books.google is that it has a large data base of titles that you can choose from. Categories exist in the books.google store to make it easy to find books that you want to read. These include the “ new arrivals” section and the “free classics”.
Another benefit of using books.google is that you can download them to different media devices such as an Android phone, iPhone, and e readers (Kindle, Sony). This makes it convenient to read anything while on the go. In addition, portable devices are really so light that they won’t take much space in your bags when traveling or just commuting. If you decide to read books while on the internet, you just need to use a web reader and start reading. There is no need to download a book from books.google as you can read the book directly on your browsers or through using a specific application.
However, if you want to get a copy of the book, books.google also makes it easy for you. You can choose from an ePub or PDF file. Note that publishers also limit the number of free downloads that can be used at one time. Downloads to devices are restricted to minimize content scraping and to protect the intellectual property rights of the publishers.
Using books.google is simple by opening a Google account. If you already have one, all you have to do is to log-in to your account with your email address and password. Browse through the selection of books and add books to your cart. You also have the choice to pre-view an e book that you want to buy. It will give you a synopsis of the book, explaining what it is about. You can then just click the buy button or move on to the next item on the screen. Complete the checkout process and pay.
When you use the bookstore for the first time, you can create a Google Wallet, which basically accepts most credit cards (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa. There are also sellers on books.google who use other types of payment processors, but you will be informed of this prior to check out. Once you have paid for your book, you can start the download process or start reading immediately on your browsers if it is a free book. Returns and refunds are allowed within 7 days or a week in cases where a download does not work properly.
Just like any other shop, you can pre-order any book that is not yet available on books.google. Unreleased titles will be shown on the site and instead of a buy now button, you’ll see the pre-order button. The steps are similar to that of buying a book with the difference that your credit cards will not be charged until the ebook is available. Android users can also use books.google even if they purchased their books from the Android market.
Tips and comments
Note that at this time, books.google is only available to users in the UK, US, and Canada. However, expansion plans are underway and in the future, books.google is available in more countries.
