However, how is the famous company using these innovations to improve an industry on the cusp of resurgence – the comic book industry?
The Rising Profits of the Comics Industry
Comics, seen as an adolescent hobby, have made waves with increased sales and new stories engaging readers all over again. As The Washington Post reports, unit sales of comics have reached their highest levels since 1997. Examining retailer purchases are tracked by those looking to keep an eye on the growth of comics, with the amount of purchased comics books illustrating the rising demand that readers have. In total, comics have found a 42 percent increase from five years ago this month, and a 56 percent increase from 15 years ago this month. This demand is also being met with new ways to purchase comics. While they could only be purchased by specialty comics shops or newsstands previously can now b “easily be bought and, in some cases, even read digitally — a trend that digital giants have noticed.
Bubble Zoom
So how is Google rising to meet this demand? The company has recently released a new feature for comic book readers and text enthusiasts – Bubble Zoom, to address the issue that readers face with text becoming small and illegible, forcing them to constantly zoom in and out. Bubble Zoom is built into an update for its ebook about Google Play Books, for Android and automatically detects texts bubbles in a comic and enlarges them. In a company announcement via Blogspot, Bubble Zoom will also be powered by Google’s machine learning tech: Though this may seem like a smaller problem facing only a select group of Google consumers, the company’s addressing and improving the readability of text in comic books and manga will help bring readers over to the digital side of the business, while growing to love a new superhero in the process. Image via Debbie R / Flickr
