How to search iBookstore from a web browser

If you plan to buy an iPad, you would probably like to check what books are available – and how much they cost – in Apple’s own ebookstore called iBookstore.

All items from iBookstore are there on the web, but iBookstore doesn’t have a web storefront, from where you could find and shop ebooks. You are able to do it only from iBooks application for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch or iTunes app for PC and Mac computers.

A web address ibookstore.com links to Project Gutenberg’s mobile site. So, is there a way to find books in iBookstore from a browser at all?

Yes. I’ve described it a bit in a post on how to find non-English books in iBookstore. You can use Google for that. The whole trick is to search only the pages from iBookstore.

Go to Google web search and paste a phrase from below followed by a keyword of your choice:

site:itunes.apple.com/us/book/

For example, if you’re looking for books about Steve Jobs, you should paste this line into a search box (click on it to go to results):

site:itunes.apple.com/us/book/ "Steve Jobs"

If you want to find books from a specific category, let’s say Computers, use this:

site:itunes.apple.com/us/book/ "Category: Computers"

As soon as Apple opens the iBookstore to average Internet users, I’ll let you know, so stay tuned, get next articles by RSS or email.