09.23.2008 | Blog : Anne Stameshkin, Blog, book previews, Google, Google Previews, lit and tech
extended previews available on Google Book Search
By Anne Stameshkin
From PW Daily:
Yesterday, Google announced a new feature tied to its Book Search program, a widget-like tool called Google Previews. By adding simple code to their Web sites, publishers, retailers or anyone with sufficient technical knowledge can embed a Google-hosted preview of up to 20% of any book that has been included in the Google Book Search database.
Fabulous! Excerpts are gateway drugs. I’ll see if we can add this “simple code” and include samplings from books reviewed on FWR.
This is an awesome idea. I was just in DC and picked up a little free magazine called “Bit o’ Lit,” which presents excerpts of recent books (fiction and nonfiction) every week. The theory is that giving people a preview will encourage them to take the plunge and buy the book itself. It’s exciting those of us who don’t live in DC can get similar excerpts from Google Previews. Gateway drug indeed!