Google Books: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Conan46 · 08-14-2016, 10:20 PM

The Good:
I love that Google Books work on both Android devices and Chromebooks and any computer browser. Also love that Google uses Epub rather than a locked down, proprietary ebook format. Google allows free upload of up to 1,000 ebooks which is quite generous. Syncing across devices and keeping notes backed up in Google Drive is a nice nice touch as well.

The Bad:
Too often Google books seems like an afterthought today which is kind of amazing considering their once lofty goal of digitizing so many library books. That brings me to a problem with the digitized books, while the selection is huge, and often there are ebooks in their store available nowhere else, many of their books are so full of errors from being digitized that they are irritating to read if not completely unusable.

The Ugly:
What good is it for Google to allow you to upload 1,000 ebooks when it does not allow you to search for those books in your collection, or otherwise organize them? And this from the search giant of the world? Disappointing and in itself nearly makes the service unusable.

Overall I find Google useful for uploading public domain and drm-free ebooks. For reading just a few ebooks at a time so those books stay at the top of the list and I can actually find them. Also Google's text-to-speech function is nice to use as well.
Yet it would be great to see Google Books get some love, the option to set categories and search All the ebooks in the library. It seems a missed opportunity. Too often you cannot find ebooks in the Google Books Store that are available at Kobo and Amazon, which turns you off of buying anything from Google Books Store.
Hoping that Google Books gets some love from the company but so far it feels lacking in a number of ways.

What do you think of Google Books?

oblox · 08-15-2016, 10:02 AM

Pretty much as stated above. Plus I hate that at 1000 books you then cannot upload more, I thought it would just start eating my drive space but no it just stops.

Organisation would be a key thing for me, plus expanding the book limit (considering you can have 50,000 songs free on music and the size difference in files).

They also need to update their uploads to support epub 3 as currently you have to validate against epub 2.0 for them to successfully upload.

Conan46 · 08-15-2016, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oblox

Pretty much as stated above. Plus I hate that at 1000 books you then cannot upload more, I thought it would just start eating my drive space but no it just stops.

Organisation would be a key thing for me, plus expanding the book limit (considering you can have 50,000 songs free on music and the size difference in files).

They also need to update their uploads to support epub 3 as currently you have to validate against epub 2.0 for them to successfully upload.

Good points. Especially about Google should just count it against our Google Drive space after 1,000 ebooks.

Barty · 08-28-2016, 12:23 PM

The reader is actually one of the better ones for android, but I hate that I have to upload books to Google. I already have the books right on my tablet, just open them! Fine, Google wants my data. Then in return give me some cool functionality -- good search and organization, like with Google photos. Seems like an afterthought that they'll let stagnate.

Conan46 · 08-28-2016, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barty

The reader is actually one of the better ones for android, but I hate that I have to upload books to Google. I already have the books right on my tablet, just open them! Fine, Google wants my data. Then in return give me some cool functionality -- good search and organization, like with Google photos. Seems like an afterthought that they'll let stagnate.

It is a shame because the potential is there, Google just does not seem very interested in furthering this project.

Alpha o · 08-28-2016, 05:07 PM

Google places stuff there on its own, I think. I don't know why Adobe Flash would be in a book library, and they added one by an author I did like but haven't bothered with in a couple of years. Biggest downer - you can't delete the damn things unless you want to delete your account!

I've caught a few other small things that seem to make Google LOOK good.

Yes, I use Android. No, I'm not a Google fan. Baen and Double Dragon get more looks.

08-14-2016, 10:20 PM	#1
Conan46 Fanatic Posts: 575 Karma: 3400000 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Paperwhite 3	Google Books: The Good, Bad, and Ugly The Good: I love that Google Books work on both Android devices and Chromebooks and any computer browser. Also love that Google uses Epub rather than a locked down, proprietary ebook format. Google allows free upload of up to 1,000 ebooks which is quite generous. Syncing across devices and keeping notes backed up in Google Drive is a nice nice touch as well. The Bad: Too often Google books seems like an afterthought today which is kind of amazing considering their once lofty goal of digitizing so many library books. That brings me to a problem with the digitized books, while the selection is huge, and often there are ebooks in their store available nowhere else, many of their books are so full of errors from being digitized that they are irritating to read if not completely unusable. The Ugly: What good is it for Google to allow you to upload 1,000 ebooks when it does not allow you to search for those books in your collection, or otherwise organize them? And this from the search giant of the world? Disappointing and in itself nearly makes the service unusable. Overall I find Google useful for uploading public domain and drm-free ebooks. For reading just a few ebooks at a time so those books stay at the top of the list and I can actually find them. Also Google's text-to-speech function is nice to use as well. Yet it would be great to see Google Books get some love, the option to set categories and search All the ebooks in the library. It seems a missed opportunity. Too often you cannot find ebooks in the Google Books Store that are available at Kobo and Amazon, which turns you off of buying anything from Google Books Store. Hoping that Google Books gets some love from the company but so far it feels lacking in a number of ways. What do you think of Google Books?

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08-15-2016, 10:02 AM	#2
oblox Zealot Posts: 135 Karma: 1007000 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kindle Paperwhite (7th Gen)	Pretty much as stated above. Plus I hate that at 1000 books you then cannot upload more, I thought it would just start eating my drive space but no it just stops. Organisation would be a key thing for me, plus expanding the book limit (considering you can have 50,000 songs free on music and the size difference in files). They also need to update their uploads to support epub 3 as currently you have to validate against epub 2.0 for them to successfully upload.

08-28-2016, 12:23 PM	#4
Barty doofus Posts: 2,536 Karma: 13088847 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Voyage	The reader is actually one of the better ones for android, but I hate that I have to upload books to Google. I already have the books right on my tablet, just open them! Fine, Google wants my data. Then in return give me some cool functionality -- good search and organization, like with Google photos. Seems like an afterthought that they'll let stagnate.

08-28-2016, 05:07 PM	#6
Alpha o Addict Posts: 282 Karma: 2603524 Join Date: Jan 2015 Device: Onyx Boox Darwin, inkBOOK Obsidian	Google places stuff there on its own, I think. I don't know why Adobe Flash would be in a book library, and they added one by an author I did like but haven't bothered with in a couple of years. Biggest downer - you can't delete the damn things unless you want to delete your account! I've caught a few other small things that seem to make Google LOOK good. Yes, I use Android. No, I'm not a Google fan. Baen and Double Dragon get more looks.

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