Google to launch eBook store this year

Internet giant Google will launch an eBook store this year in order to take on larger retailers Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the company unveiled its plans at an event in New York, and was sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group. The company is also reportedly attempting to take on these companies with a tablet/eReader device of its own.

Google has said it will allow users to buy digital copies of books they discover through its search service, and will also allow other retailers to sell “Google Editions” of books on the company’s sites. A pricing model is still being negotiated.

“This levels the retail playing field,” Evan Schnittman, vice president of global business development for Oxford University Press told the WSJ. “And as a publisher, what I like is that I won’t have to think about audiences based on devices. This is an electronic product that consumers can get anywhere as long as they have a Google account.”

Google is currently arguing in court that it should have the right to distribute millions of books currently out-of-print.