Google announced the launch of offline support for Google eBooks for those using Chrome or Chrome OS, so they can continue reading books even when they’re not actually connected to the Internet. “We’ve all been there: the Internet is suddenly …

Google announced the ability to share info about books from Google Books in circles on Google+ today. This should greatly help Google promote its e-book platform, particularly if Google+ continues the strong growth it has seen in its early days. …

Keeping track of the history of the Internet is a task that has fallen at the feet of Archive.org, and they do an fantastic job of preserving where the Internet has been and how many of the popular sites we …

As previously reported, Judge Denny Chin rejected a Google Books settlement proposal, which would have enabled Google to scan, digitize, and distribute millions of in copyright, but out-of-print books. Chin concluded in a court document, “In the end, I conclude …

Barring more legal maneuvering, the proposed Google Books Settlement – which would have cleared the way for Google to scan, digitize, and distribute of millions of in-copyright but out-of-print works – will not stand as is. This afternoon, Judge Denny …

It seems like all’s been quiet on the Google Books front for a while.  There’s been little talk of new partners, lawsuits, or just about anything.  But that doesn’t mean nothing’s been happening, as today, Google signaled that it’s scanned (and returned) one million books from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

Following a significant period of inactivity (brought on by outright hostility), Google Books has made a breakthrough.  France’s largest publisher has agreed to an arrangement that’ll allow Google Books to scan many of its out-of-print works.

The world’s largest broadcaster has lost an important executive to Google.  Madhav Chinnappa, who held the title of "Head of Business Development & Rights" at the BBC, is now supposed to help Google News and Google Books find more partners and handle the current lot.

Chinnappa’s rather lengthy new title is "Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google News & Books," and he should be well-suited to the position.  The contacts he must have made while working for the BBC will be worth a lot alone.

The digital collection of public domain works Google Books maintains is in store for yet another major boost.  Google’s struck a deal with the National Library of the Netherlands that will see the search giant gain access to more than 160,000 additional books.

Google has announced the release of over 500 scans of Ancient Greek and Latin texts for research purposes. These are from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, and are available through Google Books

This morning marks the start of another big day for Google Books.  After what felt like months of little or no news about its digitization program (except perhaps for updates concerning legal challenges), another breakthrough’s occurred, with the Austrian National Library ready to offer Google access to as many as 400,000 books.

Never mind its experiments with snippets and the occasional free-but-old-or-odd novel; sometime this summer, Google is going to become a proper (digital) bookseller.  A strategic partner development manager at the company said today that it will go into business by launching a site called Google Editions.

Google Books has done it again.  Despite heavy opposition to its book-scanning project, another deal’s been established, and this time, the agreement involves the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage (along with the National Libraries of Florence and Rome).

The amended Google Books settlement agreement (ASA) has not impressed the U.S. Department of Justice.  A statement the organization issued late yesterday praised the idea of making rare books widely available, but also maintained that there are a number of problems with the proposed deal.

The last few months were probably long and hard ones for members of the Google Books team; it had started to seem like the whole world objected to their proposed scanning and sharing settlement.  But it turns out that Stanford is on Google’s side, as a new deal was announced this afternoon.

Google is used to coming under fire from different groups when it comes to its Google Books project. Most recently, the fire has come from the China Writers Association, which has over 8,000 members.

The group complained that Google was scanning and uploading its books without permission from authors. According to a Bloomberg report:

The odds of the Google Book settlement being approved – at least if the process comes down to a popularity contest – decreased again this week.  The National Writers Union, American Society of Journalists and Authors, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America objected to it.

Spring Design, the makers of the Alex eReader device, announced it has entered into an agreement with Google, which will see it gaining access to over a million Google Books. Alex users will be able to read these books online or download them using the Android-integrated browser and search applications.

The Google Books project suffered a significant blow today in France as a Paris court found Google guilty of copyright violations.  The search giant’s been ordered to stop scanning books, remove information from its database, and pay some hefty fines.

Another milestone in a significant legal dispute has passed; a revised version of the Google Books settlement was submitted to U.S. District Court late Friday.  It looks like the book-scanning clash isn’t nearly over, however, since some powerful groups still have qualms about Google’s proposed resolution.

It could be said that the Google Books case is becoming the new Microsoft-Yahoo deal, having created all sorts of controversy and dragged on and on.  And on some more, as it turns out, since the involved parties are pushing a target date back again.

Big libraries are neat – the idea of having so much information (and entertainment) available in one place is just inherently attractive.  The trouble is, big libraries can also be overwhelming, and so Google Books has tried to make its own virtual library a little more accessible by creating a list of available magazines.