Google Editions poised for launch
Google Editions should open in the UK in the first quarter of 2011.


Google Editions is close to being ready and should launch in the UK in the first quarter of next year, according to reports.
The delayed service has had to get through a number of legal issues and technical problems to get Google Editions out.
Initially, Google hoped to have the ebook store up and running in the summer.
Scott Dougall, a Google product management director, told the Wall Street Journal the company did not want to rush the product to market.
"Because of the complexity of this project, we didn't want to come out with something that wasn't thorough," Dougall said.
A number of publishers have reportedly signed up to have their books sold via Editions.
In Google Editions, users will be able to preview books before buying and will work much like the company's other cloud offerings, in that books will be accessible on devices with a web browser.
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It remains unclear how much of a cut the search giant will take from each sale or whether Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle owners will be able to read books from Editions.
Google has had copyright issues with its Book Search in the past. In 2005, the firm was hit by two lawsuits over the service - the first a class action lawsuit from authors, the second a civil lawsuit from publishers.
Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.
He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.
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