Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, google, kodansha, manga, webcomics
Google Developing Comic Viewer in Partnership with Manga Site?
Details are sparse at the moment, but Ken Akamatsu of free manga download site J-Comi has announced that his company is developing a comic viewer in partnership with Google which will include integrated translation, commenting, and advertising support.
Still in beta since its launch in November of last year, the site currently uses advertising-supported pdf downloads as its distribution method. Akamatsu has previously announced partnerships with publishers such as Shueisha and Kodansha.
With the new comic viewer that J-Comi is developing with Google, Akamatsu said that American readers can see advertising from American businesses. In addition, the advertising can automatically change every time a manga is read, depending on the country, local time, interests of the reader.
Akamatsu also plans to allow readers to enter and save comments next to every page of a manga. With this feature, he suggests that fans can offer volunteer translations, add footnotes to explain keywords, interact with other fans, and other possibilities.