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Friday 31 July 2015

Google Editions: a history of ebooks

Google has confirmed that its own ebook store, Google Editions, will be up and running by the end of the year, potentially transforming the ebook landscape. Here, we look at some of the key milestones in the digitisation of the printed word

Google will launch its Google Editions ereader service in America this year
Google will launch its Google Editions ereader service in America this year 

1971: Michael Hart launches Project Gutenberg, a volunteer scheme to create digital copies of cultural works to add to an archive.

1993: A company, Digital Book Inc, offers customers a floppy disk containing 50 ebooks encoded in the Digital Book Format (.dbf) format.

1995: Amazon starts selling printed books online, and soon comes to dominate the market.

1996: Project Gutenberg announces that it has digitised 1,000 books. Its target is one million titles.

1998: Some of the first ebook readers are launched, including the Rocket eBook, SoftBook, and they Cybook.

1999: Several online retailers start selling ebooks, such as eReader.com and eReads.com.

2000: Microsoft releases Microsoft Reader, dedicated ebook reading software. It could be used on Windows computers and PocketPCs, and used ClearType technology to ensure the type was legible on small devices.

2000: Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet is offered in a digital format, to read on a computer.

2002: Publishers Random House and HarperCollins sell digital versions of some titles.

2004: Google Print and Google Book Search, which would later become known as Google Books, are announced at the Frankfurt book fair.

2005: Amazon acquires Mobipocket, a software company that built ebook reading software for portable devices.

2006: Sony launches its first Reader ebook reading device, with eInk technology.

2007: Amazon unveils the Kindle, a dedicted ebook reader that can download ebooks over Wi-Fi or the mobile network from the Amazon website.

2008: BooksOnBoard starts to sell ebooks for Apple’s iPhone.

2009: Amazon launches the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX, while Barnes & Noble unveils the Nook.

2010: Apple launches the iPad, complete with iBooks ebook reading software. It also launches the iBookstore, a virtual bookstore selling ebook downloads.

2010: Amazon announces that ebook sales have outnumbered hardcover sales for the first time ever.

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