Seattle: Internet commerce giant Amazon.com has said it is launching a programme allowing consumers to purchase "online access" to books or to "any page, section, or chapter" of a book.
The service, called Amazon Pages, enables Internet users to "simply and inexpensively purchase and read online just the pages they need" of a book.
"For example, an entrepreneur interested in marketing his or her business could purchase the relevant chapters from several best-selling business books," officials of the online retail giant said.
A second programme, Amazon Upgrade, allows customers to "upgrade" the purchase of a physical book on Amazon.com to include online access.
Offering an example of the use of this programme, Amazon.com said, "Buy a cookbook and you will not only have it on your shelf, but also be able to access it anywhere via the web."
"Amazon Pages and Amazon Upgrade leverage Amazon's existing Search Inside the Book technology to give customers unusual flexibility in how they buy and read books," said Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com.
The announcement came the same day Internet search giant Google said it was launching a virtual library of online access to millions of books from major libraries.
Earlier, publishers and authors protested against Google's online library by filing two separate lawsuits to prevent Google from going forward with its plans.
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