Google Books Rolls Out New Features

Google Books is an ambitious project to offer which allows web users to search through more than seven million books online. Google just recently came to an agreement with rights holders that will allow them to expand the service further. Several new additions to Google Books have been announced yesterday that bring new features and functionality to the book searching process.

The changes are outlined in the official Google Booksearch blog. Here is a short rundown of all new features that have been introduced:

• Embeds and links: It is now possible to embed previews or full views of books in third party websites. It is practically the same feature that allows Youtube users to embed videos on third party websites. Links can now also be saved or send to other users that bring them directly to the current active page of the book.
• Better search within each book: Searching books has become more powerful for public domain and partner books as searches are not showing a better preview with easier options to jump straight to the part of the book the search term was found.
• Thumbnail view: See thumbnails of all pages of a public domain or partner book. A click on a thumbnail will open that page directly.
• Contents drop-down menu: A content drop down menu that allows users to jump straight to a chapter in the book or magazine.
• Plain Text Mode: Books that are fully available are now easier viewable as plain text copies.
• Page Turn Button and Animation: Clicking the page turn button will turn the page. This is an alternative to scrolling down manually.
• Improved Book Overview Page: Additional information about books are displayed in the overview.

Some features that are rolled out sound quite interesting while others will probably not find such a huge following. It is however good to see that Google is improving their service further.

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