Google book service launches

Google has launched its own "book search" service for mobile, including many famous novels, including those by Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle.

This new service from Google is seen as a direct challenge to the Amazon Kindle device, which allows people to read e-books and e-newspapers on a handheld device, a method that is likely to have increased importance in the media industry over the coming years.

Google has scanned 1.5m books and made this available in the US, with around 500,000 titles internationally. All the books can be accessed without charge via iPhone or Android phones as they are either out of copyright or have been made available by agreement with the publisher.

Google's book search mobile team said, "We believe we've taken an important step towards more universal access to books." The launch follows recent speculation from Citigroup analysts that Amazon's Kindle shipped 500,000 units in the US during 2008.