Google to Launch Online Bookstore

Google announced today its plans to open an online bookstore called Google Editions. Google Editions will allow people to purchase and download e-books directly from Google, unlike Google Books, Google’s current e-book service, in which the electronic books are sold from third party retailers only.

According to Google, with Google Editions, people will be able to download e-books from any device with an Internet browser. The service is expected to launch in the first half of 2010 with about 500,000 titles available thanks to partnerships with publishers with whom Google already works. These publishers will get a percentage of the revenue for each book sold: 63% if the book is sold through Google Edition, or 37% through another online retailer. Buyers will be able to pay for their e-books using Google Checkout.

This will definitely put the Amazon Kindle and any other e-reader for that matter in a bad position, considering people will be able to access their e-books from any device with a browser.