Google is making its vast online library of books available for mobile phones.
“We are excited to announce the launch of a mobile version of Google Book Search, opening up over 1.5 million mobile public domain books in the US (and over half a million outside the US) for you to browse”, the company said.
The Internet search giant, in a post on Thursday on the Google Book Search blog, said mobile versions of the books could be read on devices such as the Apple iPhone or T-Mobile G1, which is powered by Google’s Android software.
“These new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen,” Google said. “With this launch, we believe that we’ve taken an important step toward more universal access to books.”
To access the mobile version of Google Book Search a user needs to type http://books.google.com/m into the Web browser of their iPhone or Android phone.
Google’s announcement comes just days ahead of the expected unveiling by Amazon of a new generation version of its popular electronic book reader, the Kindle, at a New York press conference on Monday.
Amazon is also planning to make its online store of e-books for the Kindle available on mobile phones, the New York Times reported on Friday.