ePub Supported eReader Introduced This Week

The ePub digital book standard gets a big boost this week with the introduction of the Barnes & Noble new eReader. The BN Nook, supports the ePub standard which instantly makes available over 500,000 free books from Google Books. The Google Books are already showing up on BN.com shelves. These Google books are not available on the rival Kindle eBook from Amazon which utilizes a proprietary format. In addition to the free books, BN has over 500,000 more books available for their new reader.

ePub is an XML format composed of open standards from the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) which is the trade and standards publishing association for the digital publishing industry. This format allows publishers to produce and distribute their content in one format and provides consumers with interoperability across a number of devices including the new Nook and the Sony Portable Readers.