Kindle eBooks now operate through web browsers

Amazon will make its Kindle electronic books available for reading on Web browsers beginning early next year, with people’s digital collections saved in the internet “cloud.”

Amazon executives on Tuesday showed off “Kindle for the Web” at a Google press event introducing a new, swifter version of the California technology giant’s Chrome software for navigating the Internet.

Kindle for the Web was unveiled a day after Google opened an online electronic bookstore in a heavyweight entry into a booming market long dominated by Amazon.

Google eBookstore rolled out in the United States features the Mountain View, California-based company’s massive library of digitized works online at books.google.com.

Hundreds of thousands of digital books from leading publishers such as Macmillan, Random House and Simon & Schuster are for sale in the eBookstore, which Google said will expand internationally next year.

Google e-books are kept online in the internet “cloud” and available for reading from any Web-linked computer or using free applications on gadgets such as Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch or on smartphones running Google’s Android software.

Kindle for the Web will launch early next year and the application will be available in a Google Web Store that made its debut on Tuesday.

Kindle books will be accessible through any standard browser, which will enable new features such as being able to do internet searches on words highlighted in digital works, a demonstration showed.

“All the books you love will be right there in the browser,” said Amazon vice president David Limp. “All the books I have are backed up in the cloud.”

About two months ago Amazon began letting people read the first chapters of Kindle e-books free through Web browsers.

The expanded version of Kindle for the Web rolling out next year will allow bookstores, authors and others to earn fees for selling Amazon’s digital books at their websites.

Kindle books can be read using most popular internet gadgets including smartphones and iPads.

“And now, anywhere you have a Web browser,” said Kindle Content vice president Russ Grandinetti.

“Your reading library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights are always available to you no matter where you bought your Kindle books or how you choose to read them.” – AFP