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Google’s desktop march: An e-reader app eventually?
May 31, 2007 | 9:00 am
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By David Rothman
Gmail, Docs and Spreadsheets are among the apps tht Google wants to popularize on the desktop, not just online, says the New York Times. So how soon until Google feels the same about an e-reader app? Of course, there’s a little detail here: no reader now exists other than viewing arrangements for use on the Web.
Despite Google’s focus on online activities, however, I’ll be surprised if there isn’t one in the next few years—raising the inevitable question of standards. In the IDPF‘s shoes, I’d spend a lot of time cultivating Google so that proprietary approaches from Mobipocket and Microsoft don’t prevail.
The airplane angle: Google is wondering about those away-from-WiFi moments. Exactly! But even with WiFi, I still maintain that people want to store books locally so they can feel they own them for real (or at least within the limits of DRM).
Photo: A Google nightclub, how neat would that be?—a CC-licensed Flickr shot. Hey, I figured everyone must be getting tired of just images of boxes and screen shots.
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Comments:
I’m just off for the Google Developer Day talks, where Andy Palay (project lead for the Andrew Toolkit in the early 90′s) is going to talk about Google Gears, offline support for Javascript Web apps. The very first Gears app from Google is … Google Reader.
Wow! Keep us posted, Bill! Every last bleepin’ detail
Thanks! David
Just saw a demo of the Reader with Gears (offline use).
You can specify a list of RSS feeds (say, NY Times, Art & Letters Daily, Slate, your favorite serial fiction site, etc.) and have Reader sync that RSS list while you’re shaving, say (it seems to take less than a minute to download 2000 articles, here at the San Jose conference center). Then take the subway/El/Metro/T/Tube whatever and read today’s papers, etc. offline using Reader.
OK, well, that’s at least some progress toward an e-reader for books.
Actually, Bill, I think Google would be well off using both the online and off-line reading model for books (except in the case of networked books that are too complex for offline reading).
Keep us posted!
Thanks,
David
I’m sure books.google.com will adapt its reader to use Gears for off-line reading if the content is out of copyright and the user has the Gears plug-in installed. Though I haven’t bumped into any of the Google Books people here yet…
What do you mean, “some” progress? That’s the way most people read most of what they read. They’ve solved the 80% part.
Well, as noted in the just-made post, the caching should help reconcile our visions, at least if the harvests can be made permanent
But, yes, offline readers have certain advantages for now. Try PalmFiction reader if you want much better control over your typography, for example, than you’ll enjoy online.
Hey, hats off to Google and other developers if they can replicate those features in offline/online combos!
Meanwhile, I suspect that more people are reading books offline than online.
Thanks,
David