Open Door

SAN FRANCISCO, December 8, 2010 (AFP) - Amazon will make its Kindle electronic books available for reading on Web browsers beginning early next year, with people's digital collections saved in the Internet "cloud." Amazon executives on Tuesday showed off "Kindle for the Web" at a Google press event introducing a new, swifter version of the California technology giant's Chrome software for navigating the Internet.

Kindle for the Web was unveiled a day after Google opened an online electronic bookstore in a heavyweight entry into a booming market long dominated by Amazon.

Google eBookstore rolled out in the United States features the Mountain View, California-based company's massive library of digitized works online at books.google.com.

Hundreds of thousands of digital books from leading publishers such as Macmillan, Random House and Simon & Schuster are for sale in the eBookstore, which Google said will expand internationally next year.

Google e-books are kept online in the Internet "cloud" and available for reading from any Web-linked computer or using free applications on gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch or on smartphones running Google's Android software.

Kindle for the