Google Writes a Book

Given that we are entering the third decade of the "Internet Revolution," I have often wondered when someone would get around to writing a no-nonsense, no-propaganda, and (relatively) unbiased "User's Manual for the Internet." Although it has some shortcomings, Google's (yes, that Google) 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web is by far the best offering to date.

To be sure, there appear to be more than a few potholes on the Information Superhighway that have yet to be filled in. Writing in PC Magazine's online edition ("Google Publishes an eBook "), tech columnist Jared Newman points out that what looks good in Google's Chrome browser will probably leave something to be desired when viewed with another browser such as Firefox or Apple's Safari , although both browsers tout their commitments to "web standards compliance ."

Having acknowledged Google's technical success in its first offering of a generally-available, "in-house," e-book, I now call your attention to the ominous dark clouds breaking over yon horizon: the impending "Clash of the Titans" known to mere morals such as ourselves as Google and Amazon.

Yes, you heard me! There seems to be yet another "Mother of all Battles" (to quote the late master of hyperbole, Saddam Hussein) brewing as GoogleBooks.com , the recent child of the 500 pound gorilla of search engines and targeted web advertising, as it sets its sights on the 500 pound gorilla of cyber-shopping, Amazon.com

In "Google Vs. Amazon: Clash of the Booksellers " (December 7, 2010) Computerworld's Barbara Krasnoff compares the potential upcoming battle for domination of the online booksellers to a 1960s-vintage horror movie like "... Mothra vs. Godzilla, where two enormous animals battle insanely while the tiny human onlookers scream in horror ..."

Google, which is pushing its expertise in HTML 5 and Web 2.0 technology with tons of online promos such as its public-access Google Code repository , has already bestowed its blessing on O'Reilly Publishing by agreeing to give O'Reilly what amounts to an exclusive license to publish the "official version" of Google technical documentation as a Google imprint of O'Reilly.

Amazon is not left out in the Bay Area cold, however. Its CreateSpace ,is redefining the"print on demand" market at the expense of its more "traditional" competitors such as PublishAmerica , Tate Publishing , and even such lesser-known electronic self-publishing operations such as iUniverse . Would you care to guess in which e-book "reader" technology CreateSpace publication are created? If you answered with "Amazon's Kindle," you may move up one row in our publishing classroom.

The prospect of Google and Amazon locked in a battle that calls to mind the Cold War myth of Mutual Assured Destruction must surely appeal to other book retailers such as Barnes and Noble or Borders. Unfortunately, it is the consumer (again) that will ultimately bear the cost of this cyberworld Wrestlemania

As of this writing there are no less than 30 different, and usually incompatible, formats available to a publisher that wants to enter the e-book market, ranging from the tried and true workhorses of plain text, HTML, and Adobe PDF, to the currently popular "branded" packages such as Amazon's Kindle and SONY's Reader. Although the retail prices for such hardware has fallen, at an average cost of $150 not many e-book purchasers will have the cash to purchase two or three reader software-hardware combinations. In the end, there will be only one (or at best a few) e-book reader left standing. If you bet on the wrong horse then that's just too bad.

The plethora of e-book formats was seen as a problem early as 2006 when David Rothman, in "Razing the Tower of eBabel" (Publisher's Weekly, August 25, 2006), lamented the fact that e-book readers are targeted at specific proprietary formats. It is interesting to note that the Pepper Pad, which Rothman used as an example of a technology-specific reader, is no more.

Personally, I'll stick to writing and let Google, Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble fight it out. When the dust eventually clears, then I'll worry about who will decide which reader package will rule the e-book universe.