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Google Play Books (formerly Google eBooks) is a cross-platform ebook application offered by Google. Users can purchase and download ebooks from Google Play, which offers over 5 million ebooks and as such is the world's largest ebookstore. The user may also upload up to 1000 ebooks that are in PDF or EPUB formats to their Google Play Books account cloud storage, and synchronize them between multiple devices. Uploading of digital rights management (DRM) protected ebooks purchased outside of Google Play Books is not supported. The use of Google Play Books requires a Google account. Unlike Amazon.com's Kindle Store and Apple's iBooks, the DRM system used for protected items purchased from Google Play Books is based on Adobe's open platform DRM system. This allows users to download DRM-protected books from Google Play Books in the EPUB and PDF formats, that can be transferred to and read on e-readers and apps that support Adobe Content Server 4 DRM. The supported e-readers include the Nook and Sony Reader. DRM-protected ebooks cannot be transferred to Amazon Kindles or Apple iBooks, since they do not support Adobe's DRM. Transferring DRM-protected books to an e-reader requires the Adobe Digital Editions software to be installed on the computer. Authors offering books through Google Play may choose not to enable DRM protection, in which case the downloaded ebooks can be freely transferred to other platforms including Kindle and iBooks. Books can also be read online on any web browser with JavaScript enabled. Books can be read offline through official mobile apps for Android and iOS devices that were announced at the same time as the original Google eBookstore,〔 and on the Google Chrome browser on desktops through an HTML 5-based web app available from the Chrome Web Store. Holding purchased books on the cloud theoretically allows Google to serve books to users in a variety of formats, including new formats that might not have been available at the time of purchase. On 23 May 2011, Google announced on its official blog that Google eBooks was partnered with over 7,000 publishers at the time, and that the mobile apps for iOS, Android and Chrome had been downloaded more than 2.5 million times. Over 3 million free ebooks were available in the US. Publishers and authors can submit their books to Google through the Play Books Partner Centre. Apart from being able to buy the ebook from Google Play, customers can preview these books through Google Books, with the publisher being able to set the percentage of the book available for preview.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Partner Centre overview )〕 Purchase of books from Google Play is currently supported in 65 countries. ==History== The history of Google Play Books can be traced to the Google eBooks service offered by Google before the Google Play brand came into existence. The Google eBookstore was launched on December 6, 2010, in the United States as the world's largest ebookstore with over 3 million titles. At the time of launch, the service was partnered with over 5,000 publishers and offered over 2 million free ebooks in the US.〔 The international editions of Google eBooks were to roll out beginning in early 2011. Google eBooks was launched after many months of speculation. The service was codenamed Google Editions, the name under which it was widely assumed that the service would be launched. Google Books director Dan Clancy had talked about Google's vision to open an ebookstore for in-print books in an interview back in July 2009. Then, ''TechHive'' had reported that the service would be launched in the first half of 2010, and later cited a Google employee as saying that the launch would be in June or July of the year. The store was headed by Dan Clancy, who also directed Google Books. Clancy stated that Google Editions will let publishers set the prices for their books and will accept the 'agency' model – that of the publisher being considered the seller and the online vendor acting as an 'agent'. Clancy also stressed that Google's ebooks would be readable on any device, indicating the open nature of the platform. It will also make ebooks available for bookstores to sell, giving “the vast majority” of revenues to the store.〔 Having already digitized twelve million physical books at the time, including out-of-print titles, Google offered a far greater selection than Amazon and Apple did. ''Salon'' noted that the public domain titles on Google eBookstore are of a lower quality than in competing ebookstores. One interesting aspect of public domain titles is that users can view the scanned pages of books – with the original typeset, page numbering and even library stamps and marginalia.〔 Introductory reading features included selecting font, font size, line spacing, and day/night reading modes, and the ability to pick up reading positions while using multiple devices. The reception of Google's ebookstore was mixed. While it was praised for its promise of "seamless" cloud-based consumer access to purchased ebooks, it was noted by ''Salon.com'' that the ebookstore was not easy to search, and its integration with Google Books was somewhat awkward. Search results even included every publication that simply mentioned the search terms. ''Salon'' also noted that Google eBookstore's poor user interface was about as dismal as that of iBooks Store, and was seemingly designed by people knowing nothing about the book trade. On June 16, 2011, Google introduced an affiliate program for ebooks, allowing websites to earn commissions by referring sales to the Google eBookstore. Google eBooks became listed on the Google Affiliate Network. In February 2012, Google removed Google eBooks from the Google Affiliate Network and removed most of the smaller affiliates, and switched to accepting new affiliates on an invitation only basis. On March 6, 2012, Google launched its new digital distribution platform Google Play, with the Google eBookstore becoming a part of it. In April 2012, Google announced that its retailer partner program would be discontinued on 31 January 2013. Around July 2013, Google dropped support for the wide variety of ebook file formats it used to accept for the selling on Google Play, including DOC, XML, HTML, MOBI and PDB, to focus primarily on the EPUB format. ''The Digital Reader'' noted that this policy change represented a "paradigm shift" for Google. On May 18, 2015, Google announced that a new custom-made typeface called Literata will be used for Google Play Books.〔(Google Play on Twitter: "Introducing Google Play Books' new font, Literata. Perfect for long reads on all devices." ). 18 May 2015〕 In June 2015, Google Play showed that the Play Books app had been downloaded over one billion times.〔(Google Play Books Reaches a Billion Installs – Are Your eBooks Available There? ). Retrieved 9 June 2015〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Google Play Books」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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