Google, Amazon Pushing E-Books to Phones

Don’t want to buy an Amazon Kindle but like the idea of e-books? New moves by both Google and Amazon can help.

Google, which already has 1.5 million public domain books available for free viewing on PCs, on Thursday made them all available for reading on cell phones, specifically the iPhone and, of course, the G1.

The same day, Amazon said it’s working to offer cell phone versions of some titles already available for its Kindle e-reader, reports the New York Times.

Amazon, which has some 230,000 titles formatted for the Kindle, hasn’t said when any will be ready for mobile phones, just that it has plans.

Although Google has a lot more titles to offer for cell phones, they are public domain, which means older titles no longer covered by copyrights. The Kindle titles, however, include books on Amazon’s various best-seller lists.

According to the Times, Google hopes to add out-of-print and more current books if it can forge deals with publishing companies.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.