Google vs. Amazon: Battle For e-Book Market Supremacy

Google has been shooting for world domination for years now. Google is not afraid to go after Apple to challenge iPhone or challenge Microsoft in the netbook market. So it’s not a surprise that Amazon expects a fierce challenge in its potential showdown with Google in the near future.  No wonder Amazon’s blood is boiling with Google expanding its Book Search service to provide even more content to its visitors. Under a deal between Google and Authors Guild, Google has the exclusive rights to orphan works. It’s no surprise that Jeff Bezos doesn’t like it one bit:

We have strong opinions about that issue which I’m not going to share … But, clearly, that settlement in our opinion needs to be revisited and it is being revisited.

Amazon is not the only company that is concerned with Google’s deal. Google needs to pass a few legal hurdles to get its hands on these books. And if Google has the exclusive rights to these books, how is Amazon going to digitize “all the books in the world?” Perhaps Amazon is more worried about Google selling books than its deal with Authors Guild. Google is wandering into Amazon’s territory, and you can expect Amazon to play even more offense in the future. Google may not be a direct threat to Amazon in the e-book market just yet, but any company that has discounted Google in the past has lived to regret it. Besides, when companies play cat and mouse, consumers win!

Your take: should Amazon play more offense against Google?