HarperCollins makes a big online push

Book giant HarperCollins announced on Thursday that it is rolling out a beta version of a service that will allow potential book buyers to read a few pages of each title over the Internet. The new service is called "Browse Inside" and features books from ten featured authors including Michael Crichton, C.S. Lewis, Rick Warren, Paula Coelho and Isabel Allende. Within one year, ten more authors will be added.

According to the AFP, this new program allows people to read six pages of Allende's novel "Zorro", while Amazon.com's similar "Search Inside" feature allows you to read four pages of the same book. Plans are to have this program roll out on a much, much larger scale over the next year, "extending the application to all books globally." You can test the service out yourself by going to HarperCollins.com and clicking on a featured author's book. The "Browse Inside" button will appear underneath the cover art. (Read the press release) (Read the AFP article)