Both eBay and Amazon have set their sights higher; eBay will be launching Great Collections in conjunction with book dealer Alibris, and Amazon has entered into a partnership with Sotheby's.
Perhaps you have greater access to bookstores than people in other cities; perhaps when you shop online you prefer Alibris or barnesandnoble.com.com
Jonny Simkin, one of the sites' co-founders, said the site currently searches Amazon, Half, Alibris, Abebooks, Chegg, BookRenter, eBooks.com, and Cengage Brain.
In addition to the dedicated Google site and independent bookstores' sites, Alibris, an online retailer for new and used books, movies and music, will sell e-books.
And since students looking for used textbooks were typing in ISBN numbers as they stood in college bookstores, Alibris included an ISBN search box on the mobile home page.
"When you transform a giant PC screen onto a little device, you have to decide what not to bring along," said Jeanie Bunker, general manager of Alibris Retail.
Alibris, the book seller, had held off introducing a mobile site until late last year, when it decided mobile visits to its regular Web site were rising so much that it had no choice.
A search for "Art History" by Marilyn Stockstad, yielded a long list of options ranging from a $41.06 rental from CampusBookRentals to a used text for $88.98 from Half.com, to a $109.49 new book from Alibris.
Indie booksellers and sites like Alibris will be able to sell their wares through the site, bringing welcome diversity and competition to the online book market.
(The Vollmann can be found on Alibris Books starting at $350; the complete Library of America collection can be ordered on Amazon.com).
It is not as if Alibris is simply introducing new technology to the business.
