Amazon is rolling out an interesting feature.
It seems like authors and publishers can make a book chapter or section of their work available to be read in a browser. That is nice, and it rounds out all of the other ways we can read Kindle–on our smart phone, on our PC, on our iPad, and I’m missing one…oh yeah, on the Kindle itself.
Now we don’t even have to leave the browser. However, what I’d really like to see is a way for readers/blogger to be able to share not just the sample section that an author or publisher allows, but any part of the book they wish. I can hear authors and publishers everywhere gasping in horror at this, but let me explain.
We already have the right of fair use. I can stand up in a public setting and read sections of a book as part of a talk. I can quote parts and put it in a blog post. There are rules I have to follow, but as long as I follow those rules, I’m good to go.
If I’m reading a good book, why not let me highlight a passage and share it on my blog or on Twitter? It would be very simple to do right from my Kindle or iPad. What a great way to have a conversation around a book with friends who may not have heard about it.
For the author and publisher it would be free advertising. For readers it would be a way to find new and interesting material.
Kindle for the Web is still in Beta. We’ll see how end product functions. In the mean time, scroll down a bit more to see how it works right now.
