Now this changes everything, yet again! Technology is advancing at eye blink speed, what exciting times these indeed are! It's official now! Google eBooks is here and Amazon, although at the top of their game right now, might have to soon bow down to the giant. While the publishing people world over were still waiting to see the right direction their industry would take, Google very quietly kept scanning every damn book they could get hold of. Seemed like such a waste back then, because face it, with all the legal problems and not great quality how many of us really used Google Books? Not many I am guessing. There were number of factors for that, the main being lack of a readable device! It was just not possible to stare at a computer screen and read the Lord of the Rings(oh heck, the sheer size of its paperback version itself would scare me away). But all that is set to change and what I firmly believe is probably the most important invention of this century in many many ways,
E-Ink Technology would pave the way forward. When I first saw an E-Ink screen a few years ago, it seemed quite drab and also the content wasn't there yet, but that is not the case now. Google has entered the eBooks market when the time is ripe. A million tablets and eReaders cropping up all over demanded access to one giant central source of content and Google will certainly cater to that. Although Amazon still remains the preferred eBook vendor for most publishers, Google's bigger collection could soon change that. The beauty of it all lies in the cloud! Any book you ever buy will be accessible from any device of your choice and you can start reading from where you left off last.
The way we deliver content for education is set to change completely and this time for a long time to come unless we find some way to just download wisdom from somewhere in the near future. With increasing maturity of eReaders the day is not far when school kids wont have to lug heavy backpacks anymore, instead just one interactive E-Ink based device and it makes so much sense! No matter how many saplings green initiatives have planted, a shift to E-Ink is what will save our trees ultimately. Everyone will own a library on the cloud! The last decade saw the shift from paper based teaching and learning with the onset of the laptops and this shall culminate with touch based eReaders becoming a worldwide standard, doing away completely with paper, stationery and printers! RIP
Gutenberg.
So do yourself a favor and go buy that really expensive hard cover you always wanted to own, it might fetch you quite a sum in pawn shops half a century from today.
