Cool Web Apps & Sites posted by

eBook Search – don’t waste time searching for books when you could be reading

ebook-search

There are a lot of free books out there, ready for the reading. If you’re an avid reader, free books can really save your wallet but searching them out can be a hassle. eBook Search is the app that compiles free books from around the web into one place so you can spend less time searching and more time reading.

This app connects to large free book sources such as Feedbooks, Baen Books, Smashwords, and Project Gutenberg. Overall, there are more than 8 million free books available in a variety of categories. Sure, there are the public domain classics like Sherlock Holmes and the works of Shakespeare but there are also tons of new indie books and even fan fiction (if that’s your jam) available for the curious.

The app acts as a catalogue, you do the actual reading in whatever your preferred eReader app is. You can use Kindle, iBooks, Nook, or whatever reader you’re most comfortable with. eBook Search has been available for Apple products for years but it now has an Android app. Check it out and get yourself some free books!

6 Comments

  • Looked interesting until I looked at all the permissions requested (far more than necessary). Also looked at their privacy policy[1] and these guys could care less about extracting every bit of personal data and sharing it with anyone. They barely have any downloads of their app and zero user feedback.

    I really wish that you had done a bit of vetting of this app before recommending it to your readers.

    [1] http://www.inkstonemobile.com/privacy-policy/

    • Actually Pablo, if you look back at our archives you will see that we have featured Inkstone products before. Primarily because they’re great, and also because I know Patrick the owner personally as a diligent and scrupulously honest developer. This is a new product launch, which is why you would expect to see no feedback or other data yet. Hope that helps.

    • > I know Patrick the owner personally as a diligent and scrupulously honest developer

      He may be just that but his privacy policy is horrific. I may know Mark Zuckerberg personally as a wonderful human being but it wouldn’t negate the *fact* that he would sell your soul for a song.

      Like I said, the product looks good. Lack of feedback – I understand. I also appreciated *not* seeing fake reviews – as I do on some new product launches. I considered this a plus! But… you owe your own followers a lot more than you owe a known developer.

      We follow this site not only because of the great finds you turn up but because of this site’s views on techno-political issues – from ‘green’ products to surveillance state. I’ve followed this site for many years, I know where you and the other editors stand on these pressing issues. I also know that his privacy policy does not sit well with you. Your track record speaks for itself.

      I’m hopeful that you continue to put your ideals, as you have in the past, ahead of other considerations.

    • Pablo, thanks very much for your considered comments, and thanks for the kind words. We do pride ourselves on not just following the herd, and keeping our readers/viewers informed with the best contextual comment, it’s nice to know it’s appreciated. Regarding Inkstone, I would only say that we try and track the better companies as long as we can (and also the bad ones of course), but we can only really comment on what we know from experience. As you know, having a wide ranging privacy policy does not necessarily indicate mal intent, but we will have a word with Patrick and see if he wants to come on here and explain his decision to us all. Hopefully that should help. Cheers.

    • Nigel, I responded above. Thanks for your support!

    • Hi Pablo,

      This is Patrick Thompson, founder of Inkstone Software.

      I hear what you are saying… It is crazy how much our personal information is tracked these days and you are right to be concerned. I subscribe to Nigel’s philosophy and have great respect for him and the Red Ferret and would never want to compromise or take advantage of his audience.

      As far as the app goes, we do track general analytics within the app in order to understand how people are using the app and to make it better, but we don’t track any user identifiable information or track devices. We do not sell or share any information about our users.

      So why do we ask for so many permissions? I wasn’t sure myself, so I asked our Android developer. He told me that while the app itself doesn’t require most of those permissions, some of the third-party libraries we use do. In particular:
      * PushWoosh – used for push notifications
      * Apptentive – allows users to send feedback from within the app
      * Google Firebase – for tracking general analytics and displaying banner ads
      That said, I will work with our developer to see if it would be possible pare down the list of permissions required.

      I have to agree with you about the privacy policy you linked to. It was written to cover a wide variety of future businesses that we might engage in (some requiring user identifiable information), which doesn’t apply to our current apps as we don’t track that information. I will work on modifying it to make it more reflective of our current apps.

      While we are new to Android, we have been creating mobile apps for over 7 years, have had over 12 million app downloads, over 100 million free ebook and audiobook downloads, with 4.5 star average (real) reviews. We pride ourselves in providing tons of value to our users and hope to bring that same value to the Android community.

      I do appreciate your feedback. Feel free to reach out to me directly using my first name at inkstonesoftware dot com.

      Kind regards,
      Patrick

comments powered by Disqus

Side Advert

Write For Us

Personnel

Managing Editor:
Nigel Powell

Associate Editor:
Caitlyn Muncy
Associate Editor:
Dan Ferris
Ecological Editor:
Debra Atlas
Technology Editor:
Fritz Effenberger
Asian Editor:
Hu Ping
Reviews Editor:
Kevin Evans

FB Like Box