It was inevitable that it would come to this, but ultimately we all knew this was the direction Google was headed with their book project. Not simply scanning and indexing various libraries holdings, but moving toward e-readership was always in the cards for the search giant. And with their announcement today, Google moves into direct bookstore competition with Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and more.

Having learned from their predecessors, Google's new book offering features multiple platform reading and wireless syncing of position. Start a book on your laptop, continue on your phone, pick up where you left off on your tablet. Anywhere you have internet access you can read, while books downloaded to your Google Books (iTunes link) app can be read offline. But how do the locations stack up for Apple users?

Google Books in the browser

The strengths and weaknesses of Google Books' site depends on how you view it:

• On a full-fledged computer, the various page layouts for finding books can still be a bit muddled.
• For reading, the site redesign is beautiful, presenting either a double page spread or a single page, depending on how wide your browser window is set to, and navigation is a breeze.
• The site works reasonably well on the iPad, though there the navigation buttons seemed unresponsive.
• iPhone users will want to steer clear. Google Books on the iPhone's mobile Safari is no great shakes, either giving you a desktop version that requires immense amounts of pinching and zooming or its previous mobile-search-oriented screen that makes it difficult to get to your account. Books also seem impossible to actually view there without an immense effort.

Google Books Apps

Google Books app makes reading far more pleasurable and syncing easier, though again its clear that the folks at Google have really got their eyes fixed on the iPad rather than the smaller form factor of the iPhone.

Google Books first page on iPad

Pages are laid out with decent margins on the iPad, while the iPhone felt cramped and forced. Also in the iPad version, there was the option for to turn on or off the 3D style page turning, while the iPhone was restricted to a quick slide to the next page. 

Google Books first page on iPhone, Night Theme

Settings

There seemed to be some standard features, though some expected features were lacking:

• In neither iOS version were there advanced formatting features to allow for tweaks in indenting or margin size, though you could adjust the line spacing for a bit more pleasurable viewing (especially on the iPhone).
• In both versions, there are day and night themes, seven built in fonts, the option to switch between flowing text and scanned pages of certain titles, and a few other formatting tweaks.
• A neat addition allows you to hold your finger on a line of text and a magnifying pane will show you the print much larger.
• At this point, however, there does not appear to be a way to add bookmarks or to get words defined as in many other e-readers.
• Interestingly, page numbers were tied to physical pages, not digital ones, thus letting you read several page 14s until you reach page 14-15, then page 15 begins. (This will be appealing to the textbook market.)
• Most surprising about the Google Books app is that there is no ability to read in landscape mode on either the iPhone or the iPad. While the option is clearly on Google's mind based on their own site, such a feature didn't somehow make it into the app.

Titles