Depending on the country you live in and connect with the internet, Kobo is displaying a different store interface.
I’ve invested in a VPN software to check out the store from different countries. Users in US, Canada, UK, and a couple of other major countries, see the new interface. The rest of the markets are still seeing the older site design/structure.
The new interface, the one for major markets, gives users actually less possibilities to find free ebooks than before. It’s still possible, however, and below you’ll see how to do it.
If you were using Google to search for free books for Kobo you may have come across Kobo’s page with free ebooks with the url address http://www.kobobooks.com/free_ebooks. This “over 1 million free ebooks” is something that belonged to the former site structure. You won’t find any free books on that page, although, quite oddly, it still has the heading “Free eBooks”.
To browse Kobo for free ebooks use a sorting feature that’s available in the top right corner of every list. From a drop-down menu, that’s by default set to either “Best Matches” or “Bestsellers”, pick up “Price: Low to High”.
The sorting drop-down menu is displayed when you select categories, or when you perform search (like in the screenshot above: I’ve looked for “sci-fi”).
Obviously, you can start from a search key phrase “Free eBook” – exactly as the one that’s used for a price button.
Comparing to the older interface finding free books needs more effort. You’ll just have to extensively use search box to get most relevant results. This is something similar to Google Play Books. We’ll have to live with the fact that ebookstores want to hide free stuff.
If you realize that searching Kobo is not good enough, you can always explore other sites that offer free books in epub format – the one which is compatible with Kobo. Please remember, that you won’t be able to sync side-loaded books between Kobo devices and apps.
It’s a tough decision to make: whether to go for Kobo ebookstore, or get books from somewhere else. It’s better to make it at the very beginning.
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Check out other posts for Kobo users:
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