I do not like to post anything on the Seybold Report Web site as a news brief that we cannot back up with a link to the news release for the brief. So, I am putting this news here: Google has purchased the company eBook Technologies. I had read about this in a couple of places and there is a brief statement confirming it on the ET site. I was also able to get a Google spokesperson to confirm the news:“We are happy to welcome eBook Technologies' team to Google. Together, we hope to deliver richer reading experiences on tablets, electronic readers and other portable devices.”
If you never heard of eBook Technologies, you are probably not alone. But, if you have published an e-book or want to, you have probably heard about the EPUB book format. Well, the guys who ran ET helped create that standard.
So, is Google thinking of creating its own e-reader? Or its own e-b00k format? I do not claim to have any special knowledge of what the behemouth company plans to do, but I would say it would not be a big stretch of imagination to think the company has a vested interest in trying to develop a proprietary delivery mechanism for all the content it has sucked through various ways.
You see, whoever who controls the delivery mechanism controls access and pricing. Which is another reason I still love print. Anybody with a printing press can create print. A dominant proprietary reading format or delivery system will, IMHO, never be a good idea for a person who, or a society that, believes in the virtues of a free press. I like free, public libraries for the same reason, but that is a post for another day.
