Google Books is a place where you can search and view previews of hundreds of thousands of books, both popular and lesser known ones. However, if you want to actually read the book, you have to buy it either as an e-book or as a hard copy. Google Book Downloader lets you download the books that are free from copyright or have been released to the public from free and are marked for full view.
Installation & Requirements
The installation is very simple and basic. The program warns you that it is protected by copyright at first. After that, you can choose where to install and you are also informed on the disk space that the program requires which is a bare minimum of a few MB. The program does not create a desktop shortcut but you can easily find it in the Start menu. After it opens for the first time, it will check for new updates and you are ready to go. It should be noted that the program only supports Windows and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
Interface
The interface is as simple as they get. You only have two options and a link to the product’s website. The first thing you should notice is that you can choose where you want the books to be downloaded. Keep in mind that each book is downloaded in a separate folder with a random number assigned to it. You can obviously rename and move the folders when the book has been downloaded as the program does not require the books to stay in one place.
Downloading a book is very easy. Simply go to the Google Books website and either search for the book you are looking for or browse one of the millions of books and magazines that Google offers. Keep in mind that you can only download books that are marked for full view or are simply free. New books that you can buy in commercial shops cannot be downloaded using this application. If you want those books you will have to buy them through a variety of distributors that Google has listed.
When you have found a book that you want to download and you are able to, simply copy the book’s URL and paste it onto the search bar of the application. Press download and the book will be automatically downloaded in a folder that will be created once you press the button. You can see how much of the book has been downloaded through the progress bar on the bottom of the program.
Pros
-A very easy way to download some of the millions of books that Google offers
-Good quality content that you can organize through the program’s output function
-No installation needed and the program is very small, taking little to no resources
Cons
-It could use more variety in options
Conclusion
A barebones program that does exactly what it set out to do. Google has an incredible amount of books in its database and the application makes it as easy as possible to download them. Definitely worth a try, especially at the low price of free.
