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Google To Launch Google Editions Platform

An executive with Google says the company will launch a new platform next year that lets readers buy books that can be accessed from anywhere, be it a personal computer, cell phone or other platform.

Tom Turvey, the head of Google Books partnership program in North America, Southern America and Asia, said Thursday that the search giant, which launched Google Books in 2004, is "moving to a platform allowing users to buy a book."

Speaking at the 61st Frankfurt Book Fair, Turvey said Google Editions would be launched during the first half of 2010 and the publisher would set the price.

"It will be a browser-based access," he said. "The way the e-book market will evolve is by accessing the book from anywhere, from an access point of view and also from a geographical point of view."

Turvey said the company will start with between 400,000 and 600,000 books.

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