Publishing giant Macmillan is taking on Google BookSearch with its Book Store online service. IWR had a sneak preview and has learned that the publishing industry still won't collaborate.

MPS Technologies, the tech division of Macmillan would love to develop a single destination site for the publishing industry, but they tell us that attempts to get the publishing industry to work together have not been met with enthusiasm. BookStore, like Google Book Search allows users to conduct keyword searches of digitised book content. Users can then view two pages and then purchase the title.

From what IWR saw today, MPS has created a similar interface to Google Book Seach, but sites like this are about the book pages, so there won't massive differentiation in them.

Amazon is without doubt the main destination site for books online and Google BookSearch could be a challenger. Neither of these sites allow publishers any control. The MPS offering does at least offer the publishers the chance to control the rights of books online, prices and special offers.

BookStore is unproven and of course may not be the answer to the might of Google and Amazon at all, but it is sad to hear that the industry cannot collaborate and will, once again lose out on a chance to take the bull by the horns.