In the post called, How to read Amazon’s Kindle Books without owning a Kindle, I went over the many ways you could purchase and read Kindle books without owning a Kindle. Well, it’s time to add one more to that list.

Kindle for the Web allows you to purchase and read any Kindle book right inside your browser. No fancy smart phone or Kindle reader needed.

I have to say, I love this most for previews. I find it very annoying when there is a free preview of a Kindle book and I can select it on the website, but I have to go into my Kindle for the PC or other app to read that preview. Now, it would open right in the window you are already working on which is very nice.

Amazon has set up an official Kindle for the Web information page here.

As a publisher/author, I have a ton of questions relating to what this means for DSR and piracy. Does this make the books easier to steal? I have no idea. I do know that, for a lot of people, the biggest appeal of the Kindle as a publishing platform was that it was harder to pirate so I’m sure there will be a lot of heated thoughts from this.

But, as a seller and blogger, there’s something I like best about this release and that’s how it integrates with Amazon Associates.

Now, instead of just linking to content on Amazon, you can actually embed a preview of the eBook in your website or blog so that potential buyers can read a little of the book and then opt to purchase and finish reading it right then and there. I could see this making a huge difference in affiliate sales, especially for sites that do book reviews or for authors.

For an example, here is a preview of my newest fiction work, The Author. I had to really limit the width to fit it on this blog so you may want to full screen it to get the full effect.

So, what do you think? Does this have potential?