Google Book Search 'builds bridges with e-commerce'

Category: Ecommerce

April 16th 08, 13:00

E-commerce websites are now able to link to items on Google Book Search following the release of a new application programming interface (API) by the search giant.

Web traffic monitoring service Hitwise observes that the development preceded a 73 per cent increase in visits to books.google.co.uk over the last four weeks.

Users can now experience a digital preview of books before purchasing them in a similar way to Amazon's search inside function, notes Robin Goad on his blog for Hitwise.

He adds that since the launch of the new API there has been an increase in the number of visits to books.google.co.uk and a corresponding decline in the amount of hits received by books.google.com.

Meanwhile, the resource is now less dependent on Google's search sites - the amount of traffic received by book site from properties owned by Google has fallen by 23.9 per cent year-on-year.

"Not all books featured with Google Book Search are available to read, and a number of books have a summary and links to online booksellers. This is having an increasing impact on the online book shopping industry," adds Mr Goad.

Launched as Google Print in 2004, Oxford's Bodleian Library was one of the project's initial partners.

This news story was brought to you by Bluhalo, a leading UK digital agency.

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