RP bookstore expands through Google
Posted on December 7th, 2008 under Art & Living Achievements
Rex Book Store (RBS) has joined the Google Book Search Publisher Partner Program which will see thousands of titles published by RBS digitized and indexed on Google’s search engine in the next several months.
The texts of RBS books and journals in English and Filipino languages will soon be accessible and discoverable online via Google Book Search, a tool from Google that searches the full text of books stored in Google’s digital database. Clicking a result from this search tool opens an interface in which the user may preview sample pages from the book as well as links to the publisher’s website and other online booksellers.
RBS has over 5,000 titles covering textbooks for pre-school to post-collegiate level, supplementary curriculum-based non-textbook materials, as well as reference and other leisure publications. Through Google Book Search, RBS can touch base with 24 million Filipino Internet users every day as well as Google’s hundreds of millions of daily users worldwide, thereby providing a wider market for its books, and promoting Filipino authorship around the world.
“Our pride in our Filipino authors drives us to seek avenues to further the reach of their scholarship and creativity. This association with Google opens a gateway for our publications to be searched with ease, and for our local authors to gain appreciation from markets far beyond the Philippines. Participating in Google Book Search puts our authors at par with renowned international scholars housed by premium publishing houses all over the world, ” says Don Timothy Buhain, Chief Operating Officer of Rex Group of Companies.
RBS has been in the forefront of promoting the Filipino intellect internationally through co-publishing programs which allow Rex titles to be translated into foreign languages, or its books to be imported by foreign publishers. Another component of the program provides opportunities for local authors to collaborate with experts abroad to enrich literature in different subject areas. By participating in Google Book Search, RBS has joined more than 20,000 publishers worldwide including the world’s finest such as McGraw-Hill, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Wiley.
“The relationship with Rex Book Store marks a very important step for Google Book Search in the Philippines. It’s an honor for Google to work with one of the most reputable publishing houses in the Philippines and a leader in local educational publishing. The ability to discover locally published titles, in both English and Filipino languages, when searching on Google is really important for our millions of users in the Philippines. I am excited to see this translate into increased sales for Rex Bookstore after their titles are digitized and added to our search index in the next several months,” says Erik Hartmann, head of Google Book Search Strategic Partnership Development for Southeast Asia.
For further information on Google Book Search, visit http://books.google.com.ph.
About Google Book Search
Google Book Search enables publishers to promote their books on Google. Google scans the full text of participating publishers’ titles so that Google users can see books that match the topics they are searching on. When users click on a book search result, they are taken to a Google hosted web page displaying a scanned image of the relevant page from the book. Each page also contains multiple “Buy this Book” links, which enable users to purchase the book from online retailers. Users may also see contextually targeted Google AdWords ads on these pages. Publishers will receive a share of the revenue generated from ads appearing on their content.
About Rex Bookstore
Rex Book Store is the country’s major publisher of educational textbooks. Renowned for legal books which it started to publish in 1958, Rex has grown its portfolio which currently consists of textbooks from pre-elementary to post-collegiate level, supplementary curriculum-based non-textbook materials, and other references. Rex has also engaged in a significant international program with its partnership with the ASEAN Book Publishers Association which aims to promote co-publishing, translation of significant relevant literature, and mutual trade of books in ASEAN. Through its sustained efforts in providing top-notch quality educational materials, Rex aims to be a significant contributor to Philippine education.