Google Inc. launched Google eBooks, its long-anticipated digital bookselling enterprise, on Monday.

The venture, now rolling out across the Web with hundreds of thousands of popular titles for sale and millions more free, will compete for a slice of the digital books business, which is valued at close to $1 billion and is expected to grow in the coming years.

Google eBooks, formerly called Google Editions, represents another opportunity for the Web giant to go toe-to-toe with two of its powerful rivals, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., and to open up a new stream of revenue outside of online advertising.

'Publishers want more competition in the marketplace, and we already have a big investment,' said Tom Turvey, a director of strategic partnerships at Google. 'We're trying to extend the value of content that exists in the world by enabling people to find it and buy it.'

Users will be able to buy books through books.google.com/ebooks and read them on many devices, including tablets, computers, smartphones and open format e-readers. Google on Monday released e-book buying and reading apps for Apple's iPhone, iTouch and iPad as well as Android mobile devices.

Customers will be able to store their Google-purchased titles online on their own bookshelf accessible via their Google account. They will be able to start reading e-books on one device or computer and switchmidway through the book to other devices without losing their spot, Google engineers said.

Pricing is similar to other major e-books vendors, with new releases from publishers operating under the so-called 'agency pricing model,' in which publishers set the consumer prices, generally priced under $20. Google eBooks will set its own prices for books sold by publishers under the traditionalwholesale model.

The new service is an extension of Google Books, a book-search site linked to the company's main Web search engine. Launched in 2004, it displays full copies or previews of millions of books and points consumers to places where they could be purchased, including Amazon.com. Now Google will sell books directly through an online store and allow others, including independent bookstores, to sell Google eBooks on their own sites and get a share of the revenue. Mr. Turvey said the company will not require other sellers to give Google their customers' financial information or email addresses. 'We're not interested in pursuing the customers of booksellers,' he said.

JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG / AMIR EFRATI

• enterprise [´entəpraiz] n.企业；雄心；胆识 (初中英语单词)
• venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
• compete [kəm´pi:t] v.比赛，竞争，对抗 (初中英语单词)
• formerly [´fɔ:məli] ad.从前，以前 (初中英语单词)
• stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
• competition [,kɔmpi´tiʃən] n.比赛；竞争 (初中英语单词)
• director [di´rektə] n.指导者；....长；导演 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
• device [di´vais] n.装置；器具；策略 (初中英语单词)
• computer [kəm´pju:tə] n.计算机；电子计算器 (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• revenue [´revinju:] n.税收；收入 (高中英语单词)
• switch [switʃ] n.开关 v.转换 (高中英语单词)
• so-called [´sou ´kɔ:ld] a.所谓的，号称的 (高中英语单词)
• consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
• extension [ik´stenʃən] n.延长；扩展；延期 (高中英语单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
• accessible [ək´sesəbəl] a.易接近的；可到达的 (英语四级单词)
• midway [,mid´wei] n.中途 ad.&a.中途(的) (英语四级单词)
• traditional [trə´diʃənəl] a.传统的，习惯的 (英语四级单词)
• wholesale [´həulseil] n.&vt.批发 a.批发的 (英语四级单词)