Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Freeware, Internet, Internet Tools, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch
Google releases Books browser for iPhone
Despite the fact that the App Store is capturing everybody's attention, old-school (as in, about 8 months ago) mobile web apps are still worth checking out, too -- Andy Ihnatko reports that Google has put their Google Book Search web app in iPhone form, and the result is awesome: 1.5 million public-domain texts in a well-coded and clean reader all for completely free. Classics, you may be a video star, but you can't touch this.Ok, so no it doesn't have Classics' fun little page-turning or bookshelf-browsing graphics, nor Stanza's bookstore and eReader support, nor Bookshelf's linkup to Webscription.net -- but it is awesome, and completely free. To check it out, you just need to visit http://books.google.com/m on your iPhone or iPod touch (and you might as well bookmark it, because you never know when you'll want to read a little Shakespeare or Dickens).
Update: Commenters note that you can add Google books to Stanza by entering the URL of the book. Not too shabby. Stanza is free [App Store link].
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve said 10:34PM on 2-05-2009
This is very cool! When I saved a link to this as an icon the home screen of my iPod touch, I noticed something strange (to me at least). When accessing Google Book Search through the home screen icon, it seems to open up as it's own "App", without the location bar and bottom toolbar of Mobile Safari. Does anyone know what the deal is with this? It's pretty cool, though, since it makes reading the books more like a native app experience and less like a webapp.
Two things that I would love to see in Google Book Search: a way to change the font size (it seems tiny!) and a way to access the books that I've saved in "My Library" using the full web version of Google Books.
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aj_robins said 10:48PM on 2-05-2009
Stanza is also awesome and completely free.
Plus, it doesn't need an internet connection -- great for airplane trips, etc..
And you can make your own books.
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lifino said 12:12AM on 2-06-2009
Yeah, I'd rather have my iGoogle home page back...
Or at least let me default to Classic Google for my searching - Why, again, was it that I'm not supposed to view my search results in HTML?
Sure I'll check it out. But since I'm on a iPod Touch I'd rather have the book on my machine so I'm not dependent on that wifi - which I don't get when I'm at work.
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dk206 said 2:40AM on 2-06-2009
If you have a jailbroken iPod touch or iPhone then you can get UAFaker from cydia. Which treats every website to think your using a desktop when you surf the Internet.
Meaning you can get your igoogle page back and the nomal google search page
Thanks
Dk206
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TommyW said 7:44AM on 2-09-2009
Actually you can add Google Books to Stanza.
Under their online catalog you hit the + button, choose 'add a web page' and enter the url.
It's perfectly embedded in Stanza and you can still have one place on your iPhone for books.
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joe said 8:52AM on 2-06-2009
How do you get the long url from google into stanza?
Rob E. said 5:34PM on 2-09-2009
I hear you, but I don't we're saying the same thing. I agree that you can use Stanza to read a Google book by entering the URL in Stanza, but that's not the same thing as importing a Google book to Stanza. The difference is what happens if you end up out of range of a cell signal, or, if you're an iPod touch user, a Wifi signal. If you've actually added a book to Stanza, that doesn't matter. If you're just using Stanza as a browser to read the Google Books site, you're out of luck. Also what happens if you get two chapters in, then go check your e-mail, and come back to Stanza to keep reading. Does it remember your place like it does with a Gutenberg project book? Sort of. Google itself, I think, tracks how far you've read, but the mobile Books site serves up ten pages at a time (at least for the book I was reading), so Google Books will put you to a spot that's within ten pages of where you were, but that's as close as it gets. And when you open Stanza after having been reading a Google Book, it brings you in at the start page where you have to navigate back to the Google Book page, then back to your book. It's not unmanageable by a long shot, but it's not the same as Stanza's behavior with a downloaded book: Every time you open Stanza it is already on the exact page you were last on. Also it doesn't seem to apply the default formatting to web pages, so if you've picked anything other than black text on a white background, Google Books looks different than other Stanza books. Unless there's a way to actually download a Google Book into Stanza, I would think Safari's multiple window approach would make it the better application for Google Books. You could leave your book open in one window and save yourself some steps navigating back to where you last left off.
m said 9:06AM on 2-06-2009
there seems to be some confusion about the purpose of google books. it is merely not a cheap way to read a paperback on the bus. it is a research tool that gives ready access to the world's accumulated knowledge. i use it both to read rare and out-of-print books, and to track down lost references. as a grad student, i think this may be the first genuinely useful iphone app i have seen.
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TommyW said 11:16AM on 2-06-2009
Joe, you launch Stanza
- The main page opens showing the various groups.
- Touch Online Catalog
- Scroll down to the bottom
- Click on the + symbol
- The Add Catalog popup...pops up.
- Touch Add Web Page
- Enter a name, Google Books comes to mind.
- Enter the URL
Away to go...
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Jack said 11:49PM on 2-06-2009
Yes we can search books through apple. But the google image search cant be used in apple so far. http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/apple-macbook-pro-15-battery.htm
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Rob E. said 1:05AM on 2-07-2009
So, to be clear, no one is talking about adding a Google book to Stanza, even though that's what the update to the article makes it sound like. What's being discussed is the ability to access to Google Books search from Stanza, instead of going through Safari. Is that accurate? Because those are very different things. Searching Google Books from Stanza is nice, because then all your book reading is in one place, but it's not the same as Stanza's other e-books, which you can actually download to your iPod/iPhone and read when you're off line.
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