The Google Book Search APIs are available to anyone wishing to integrate with Google Book Search from their own site or application. No pre-approval is needed to use these APIs.
Use of these APIs is, however, governed by the Terms of Service. Among other things, these Terms require that you adhere to certain guidelines on how layout, Google attribution, and branding must be handled on your site. This document is intended to help you meet these requirements.
These branding guidelines may change from time to time, and without prior notice from Google. Your continued use of the Google Book Search APIs is contingent upon your adherence to the current branding guidelines. If you are uncomfortable with any of these branding guidelines, discontinue your use of the APIs, and contact us with your concerns.
The purpose of the Google Book Search APIs is to help you reliably direct users to Google Book Search services from your site. Accordingly, there are certain attribution and linking requirements. The following basic principles govern your use of the Google Book Search APIs:
To help us ensure a consistent end-user experience and accurate expectation of Google Book Search features, you must abide by certain naming conventions.
When creating a feature or product utilizing the Google Book Search APIs, the name of the feature or product cannot use Google, Google Book Search, or other Google Brand Features in the name of the software or feature. If for marketing or other strategic reasons it would valuable to have Google Book Search referenced, it may be permissible for the developer to use the phrase (e.g., 'Acme Plugin for Google Book Search,' but never 'Google Book Search AcmeOPAC Plugin'), however this should be the exception and not the rule. You may not state or otherwise imply any affiliation with Google or Google Book Search.
It may occasionally be necessary to refer to Google Book Search or features provided through this API (e.g., in documentation, headers, buttons, and so on). When doing so, you must only use approved terminology:
If you wish to refer to Google Book Search features in a language other than English, you must do so using the same terminology as the Book Search site, which is available in over 35 languages. For convenience, we provide a table of approved translations for some of the the most common features.
For additional questions about other uses of Google Brand Features, please see http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html.
In addition to following Google's general Brand Features guidelines, you are also required to adopt certain branding elements when using the the Book Search APIs. These forms of attribution are used in order to maintain consistency and preserve the Google brand identity.
The following basic principles govern use of the Google name and logo in conjunction with the Google Book Search APIs:
Whenever you wish to direct users to a page or element whose most prominent element is the Google-provided book preview ("Google Preview"), you must link to that page using the authorized, clickable "Google Preview" button below. You must also use the Google Preview button when opening the preview page in a new browser window, or when linking to a preview page hosted by Google.
|
Web-safe GIF Source PNG |
If you want to indicate to users that Google Preview capabilities are available for a book title or for book search results on your own web page, use the non-clickable "Google Preview" sticker. You are not required to mention preview capabilities in such instances, but if you do, the Google Preview sticker must be displayed.
|
Web-safe GIF Source PNG |
When embedding the Google Preview on any page, you may not obscure, modify, or customize any elements of the Google Preview except as specified by Google (e.g., in the developer documentation on this site).
See our approved translations page for localized versions of the images above.
Using the Google Book Search APIs and tools, it is possible to issue Google Book Search queries directly from your site. The search boxes you use in conjunction with these features must include proper attribution to Google. You must include this attribution even if the search results are rendered within your own site.
You may choose to display either a Google watermark inside your search box, or a "Powered by Google" logo next to your search box. Any text or buttons should adhere to the naming conventions described above.
| Search type | Watermark style | No watermark style |
|---|---|---|
| Search all books | ||
| Search within a book |
Search in this book
|
Search in this book
|
Your application may display, in response to a user's action, book information obtained from the Google Book Search APIs. Whenever you display such information, you must include attribution to Google and link prominently to Google Book Search features.
Powered by Google. When rendering one or more book results from the Google Book Search APIs, the "powered by Google" logo must appear adjacent to these results. You should avoid duplicate "powered by Google" messages (e.g., if you already have a Google-branded search box directly above the results).
Prominent links to Google Book Search. Every book result displayed in your application must have a prominent link to either (1) a page on your site featuring Google Preview capabilities, or (2) the Google Book Search page for that book. When linking directly to previews from search results, be sure to use the "Google Preview" images as described above.
Modification of search results. You may not reorder or otherwise alter the results returned by the Google Book Search APIs. For more information, see the Terms of Service.
To illustrate how the branding guidelines apply to your site or application, this section includes various screenshots of compliant implementations. These are provided by way of example and do not cover all the ways the branding guidelines may apply to your site.
You can click the thumbnail images below to see enlarged images.
In many cases, you will want to send your users to page or window that is dedicated to showing a book preview.
|
|
Google Preview Button
As described above, you should use the "Google Preview" button whenever you use the Book Search APIs to direct users to a Book Search preview. The Google Preview button can, for example, be placed next to your book metadata or cover image. |
Your application may use this button to launch a preview on your own site, on the Google Book Search web site, or on a third-party page. The preview may open in a new window, or take over the existing window. The following screenshots indicate what users might see after clicking the "Google Preview" button.
|
|
Preview Popup
You may wish to have the Google Preview button launch a "popup" containing the embedded viewer. The Preview Wizard makes the popup approach especially easy to implement on your site. |
|
|
Preview page on your site
Rather than open a popup window, you may have the Google Preview button link to a separate page on your site dedicated to showing the preview. |
|
|
Google Book Search preview page
You can use the Google Preview button to link directly to preview page on the Book Search site itself (e.g., if you use Dynamic Links to determine viewability and preview URLs), or to a Cobranded Search preview hosted by Google. |
|
|
Preview section
In this example, an embedded viewer is inserted under a "Book preview" header within the book page. You can implement this using Dynamic Links and the Embedded Viewer. As specified in the naming section, you may also use "Google Preview" or just "Preview" for the header. |
|
|
Preview tab
This example shows an alternate tabbed design, which allows users to open the Google Preview without leaving your page. As specified in the naming section, you can also use "Google Preview" or just "Preview" for the tab name. |
|
|
Search and preview application
This screenshot shows how branding elements should appear in an advanced implementation of the Data API that renders Book Search Results. Note in particular:
|
Last updated July 15, 2008