Google Editions - the facts and the fiction

If you haven't heard yet, Google is to launch a new service by the end of June called "Google Editions" where they will supposedly be competing in e-book sales competing against the Apple iPad bookstore, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.  At present it is rumored that Google right out of the gate will begin with over 4 million publications. 

The Wall Street Journal stated last week that publishers have not yet made any commitments and Japan Today stated yesterday that nearly all publishers are on board. 

The mystery it seems to be around how Google will handle the sale and content of its e-books.  If you visit http://www.google.com/books you can currently see a huge collection that Google has acquired and offering in epub format for downloading.  These are primarily scanned copies and do not offer a high quality reading experience, but certainly do the job of keeping an electronic copy.  There is speculation that Google will use a browser based format but many are concerned with having the ability to access the files offline.

Lets explore the option of Google staying with the open source EPUB format for a moment.  Google certainly has traditionally supported open source formats.  However, even though the EPUB standard is based on common platforms such as XHTML, XML, and a subset of CSS to layout content.  EPUB has a couple of major issues from what I see standing in the way of it being adopted as Google's e-book platform of choice.

First the EPUB format does not have a standardized DRM to be used with the .epub format.  Meaning, an .epub file sold with a DRM specifically for an iPad will not necessarily work on an Android device even though it has the same file extension.  This openness of the standard actually creates elements of closed source for books to be sold.

Second, and what can be seen as a huge flaw in the Google eye is the fact that the EPUB standard uses an OCF 1.0 container format (similar to a zip file) that makes linking outside of that file very difficult.  It also uses very structured metadata for keywords in its XML structure, meaning limited search capability.  This most likely has little appeal to Google as keyword indexing is the life blood of every entity of Google's ability to match advertising to user interests.

A lot of speculation is that Google will use a browser format and this in itself seems to fit the model for Google more closely.  By using a browser based reader Google can easily provide the service across any Internet capable device and can stick to the 'keep it in the cloud' philosophy.  As far as people's concern for being able to read offline, that may be a back burner issue to Google as they inch their way into the Wifi arena.  I think it's safe to say that the days of being 'offline' will be a thing of the past as I with all the speculation that exists about Google and Verizon tablet to be I'm sure will be an always online device as well.