Yahoo! Shopping hits the e-books

From...

By Scarlet Pruitt

(IDG) -- Saying that it expects an increasing demand in the lumbering e-books market, portal powerhouse Yahoo! launched a new e-books category for its Yahoo! Shopping online commerce destination Wednesday, boasting titles from four major publishing houses.

The portal sealed deals with publishers Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, Random House and HarperCollins to offer a variety of e-books over the Net in multiple formats, the company said.

IDG.net INFOCENTER The Standard's Main Page Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com UnixInsider IDG.net search

Technology will make it convenient for consumers to access digital content and that will push demand for e-books, Rob Solomon, VP and general manager of Yahoo! Shopping said in a statement.

While e-books have yet to be widely embraced, the publishers are hoping to position themselves in the digital market in anticipation of e-books going mainstream, the companies said.

Consumers will be able to download books from Yahoo! Shopping in either Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader or Microsoft Reader platforms. Both programs are free and can be downloaded from links on Yahoo! Shopping, the company said.

The service is currently only available in the U.S.