Google Books Now Supports Offline Reading Via Its Chrome Browser

Mountain View, California — If you are a book lover and often gets interrupted due to connection failure, but now you can uninterruptedly read all those tomes you have collected through Google Books offline. Google has finally announced a new offline feature they have added to their Google eBooks service for those using Chrome or Chrome OS, so they can continue reading books even when they lose the Internet connection.

Well, for some reason the search engine giant has taken a really long time to get their act together with making their apps and services available offline. Anyways, its a welcome addition, the Google Books app for Chrome now caches your titles for local reading.

Now users can save the books for offline reading right in the browser and not have to stop reading just because you lose your Internet connection.

Google explains:

“We have all been there: the Internet suddenly crashes, and you cannot continue reading your ebook to see what the character decides to do next,” explains Google Books Product Manager Xinxing Gu. Or you are on your way to the airport and want to be able to dive into a newly-purchased ebook during a long flight, he added.

So, whether you are flying through the air, backpacking through the European countryside, or simply facing erratic network connections, you can always read your Google eBooks in your Chrome browser or on your Chromebook, says Gu.

However, it seems that currently Chromebooks is the most likely benefactors of this particular feature since there are plenty of ways to download a Google eBook for offline reading on one’s computer, smartphone, or tablet.

In order to be able to read your Google eBooks offline, you will need to install the Google Books app, which is available at the Chrome Web Store. For more information follow this link for a step-by-step instructions on how to make sure your eBooks are accessible.

In addition to the ability to search for and read Google Books, the app is merely notable. It has some basic eReading functionality, such as changing the font and searching within a book, but nothing fancy like bookmarks or notes.

Also, before you are able to read the choicest book offline, then obviously you will have to download the eBooks themselves while you are still online.

In order to download a book, just mouse-over the cover of books in library view and select “Make available offline” checkbox that pops up. Besides, this option can also be accessed by clicking the “i” in the right-hand corner of your screen. Then, even when you cannot get your Chromebook connected, you will be able to sit back and relax with a classic novel or seedy romance tale.

Moreover, offline reading is also supported in Google’s mobile apps. But, unfortunately at present the Google eBooks service is only available to US residents.