Google throws down gauntlet with eBooks

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Google Inc. on Monday threw down its newest gauntlet in the tech industry, launching its long-awaited online bookstore as a shot against the offerings from Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.

World News: The new Google e-book store has more than 3 million titles, many of which are free, from almost 4,000 publishers, including Simon & Schuster Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!cbs/quotes/nls/cbs (CBS 17.62, +0.09, +0.51%) and Random House. Additionally, Google /quotes/comstock/15*!goog/quotes/nls/goog (GOOG 578.37, +5.37, +0.94%) will let independent bookstores sell books through their own sites on the Google e-book store.

“Launching Google eBooks is an initial step toward giving you greater access to the vast variety of information and entertainment found in books,” said Abraham Murray, product manager of Google Books in a posting announcing the Google eBooks launch on the company’s official blog.

The main feature of the Google initiative is that it uses a cloud-hosting environment that allows customers to buy and store their books with Google, as opposed to downloading and storing books on traditional electronic reading devices. Google said this will allow books to be read using a Web browser on any computer or mobile devices, including smartphones and tablet computers running on Google’s Android operating system.