Google Book Search Goes Mobile

I knew this was bound to happen. With Google slowly making its web content and services on the mobile phone, it was just a matter of time before it makes Google Book Search available as well. Although it would have been a cooler idea if Google created a native iPhone or Android application, the mobile version of Google Book Search which it just rolled would suffice for now.If you’ve been using Google Book Search on the web, you’d already know hot it works. You search for a particular title of the book and if it has already been included in the Google Library Project, and the book is already in the public domain, you’ll get the full copy of the book. You can read it, scan it page by page via a Flash-like interface. It’s like reading an e-book although on the web.

But with the just launched mobile version of Google Book Search, you can now access the service from your iPhone or your Android phone by visiting the mobile phone optimized mobile site – http://books.google.com/m.

The mobile Google Book Search gives you access to around 1.5 million public domain books right on your mobile phone. You can bookmark specific book titles, read it from cover to cover if the full electronic copy is available, or stop reading, and then go back where you left off the next time you are connected online through your mobile phone. It’s like having an ebook reader without the need to download the ebook from the web.

For non-public domain books, particularly the commercially available publication, the mobile Google Book Search provides various types of previews which can help you decide whether to purchase the book or not.

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.