Google (GOOG) China has formally launched a Chinese-language book search service.
Google China says that its book search service is the first of its kind that provides a whole text search which enables Internet users to easily find their most wanted books online.
The book search service is just a sub-category of its search engine and with the further development of search service, there will be more and more sub-category services. This new service shows digitalization is developing very fast in China and it will bring new opportunities to the traditional industries, including the publishing sector.
Google actually launched the China service in June 2006, but it only targeted English-language books and was tasked with first finding partners. Tsinghua University Publishing House and Juvenile and Children Publishing House became its first batch of partners for the program, and it was free to publishing houses, printing institutions and individual writers.