Google is now offering a way for authors and publishers to offer content for free under the Creative Commons license on Google Books. Rightsholders who want to distribute their books can let users download, use, and share them.

There is a new Twitter book out called All a Twitter. It was written by Tee Morris, author of Podcasting for Dummies. It comes with a foreword by social media guru Chris Brogan and a dedication to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show.

"Social Media has the potential of increasing your presence, both from a commercial and from a personal perspective, on the global stage," says Morris. "With All a Twitter, I bring several years of tweets and observations on Twitter’s growth, evolution, and reinvention."

Google signed a settlement agreement with authors and publishers last year over Google Books. Google says that if it is approved by the court, it will unlock access to millions of books for anyone in the United States.

Today, Google has addressed privacy concerns that users and potential users have voiced with regards to Google Books.

How about a nice ‘feel good’ story to take you into the weekend? The news in the Internet marketing industry has been focused on negative numbers, downturns and dire forecasts for quite a while now. Personally, I get a little worn out by it. It’s good to be reminded, however, of just how potentially life altering (a little hyperbole never hurt anyone) the use of social media can be.

Google introduced seven new features to Google Books today. The features add ways to share and browse the content users find in Google’s collection. They include:

Update 2: The Kindle DX will ship on June 10th, a spokesperson for Amazon tells WebProNews. "The Kindle DX is currently available for pre-order and all orders are prioritized on a first come, first served
basis," they said.

Update: The Kindle DX is now available for pre-order at Amazon for $489.

Google is facing more scrutiny over its proposed settlement it reached with copyright holders allowing it to digitize millions of books.

This time a group of state attorneys general have discussed the deal in a conference call held on Tuesday, Peter Brantley director of the Internet Archive told Reuters.

Three major library groups have filed comments with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for the judge to consider in his ruling on the proposed Google Book Search Settlement.

The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Association of Research Libraries, are asking the judge to "exercise vigorous oversight" while ruling on the Google Book Search Settlement.

Sony has reached a deal with Google to offer access to more than a half-million public domain books from Google available on its current models of its Reader.

The books will be available for free to users of the Reader via Sony’s eBook Store, which now boasts more than 600,000 titles. The move is seen as a direct challenge to Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, which has access to over 245,000 titles along with newspapers, magazines and blogs.

Amazon’s Kindle 2 has arrived in the hands of those lucky enough to get the early pre-orders. Luckily WebProNews was among the first batch of recipients. So let’s take a look at this bad boy.

With the Unveiling of the newest generation of Amazon Kindle (which began shipping on Monday) bloggers, publishing houses, newspaper editors, and even lumberjacks are thinking: what’s next?
 
It’s the second version of the Kindle, a wireless reading device, capable of storing thousands of titles within its svelte design.
 

Google has started paying authors of out-of-print books under a $125 million copyright settlement agreement reached in October concerning Google Book Search.

Authors and publishers around the world are receiving detailed information about their legal rights and options by email and postal mail. Class members can visit this Web site for complete information about the settlement.

Google has launched a long overdue mobile version of Book Search for the iPhone and Android. This includes access to over 1.5 million mobile public domain books.

You may have heard that there was a possible Facebook Book in the works. "My next book is about the kids who founded Facebook," says author Ben Mezrich.

Well, it turns out that there is a book already available about Twitter. It’s less of a bio on the founders however, and more of a how-it-can-help-you book for businesses.

In an effort to attract readers, libraries have increased the amount of digital content they offer including books, music, and movies that can be downloaded by patrons to a computer or mobile device for free.

To access the program users need a library card, access to the Internet and some downloadable software such as Adobe Digital Edition, the Mobipocket Reader or the OverDrive Media Console.

Bookselling chain decides competing with Amazon.com on book sales will be a better prospect than the now-ended partnership with the online retailing giant.

Globally, the most popular items to purchase online are books with 41 percent of Internet users doing so in the last three months according to Nielsen Online.

Among U.S. Internet users 38 percent bought books in the past month. In the UK 45 percent of Internet users have bought books online and in Germany 55 percent had done the same.