Barnes & Noble’s first big move since tie-up with Microsoft: Help users ditch tablets

Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOK® for Web, Giving Readers Instant Access to NOOK Books™ from any Web Browser – No Sign-In, Download or NOOK Required

Get Started Today with Six FREE Bestsellers Available through July 26

New York, New York – July 17, 2012 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today introduced NOOK for Web, an innovative and free new browser experience that offers readers the ability to explore the hottest digital titles and bestselling books right from their computer – no sign-in, software download or NOOK account required to begin reading. With fast and easy access from any PC or Mac® browser, NOOK for Web seamlessly combines NOOK’s award-winning digital reading experience with access to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Store™. Now, anyone who loves to read can browse, sample and become instantly immersed in a NOOK-like reading environment from any browser, with support coming this fall for Internet-enabled tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices.

Beginning today, Barnes & Noble is offering six bestselling NOOK Books in their entirety at no charge for readers to try NOOK’s award-winning digital reading experience online. With popular summer titles the entire family will enjoy, customers can visit www.nook.com/NOOKforWeb to browse the list of complimentary titles available, including Map of Bones by James Rollins, Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell, The Vow by Kim Carpenter, The Boxcar Children Summer Special by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Brave by Tennant Redbank and Perfect Island Getaways by Patricia Schultz, instantly read the sample, and then download the entire book for free on any browser now through July 26.

“NOOK for Web makes it easier than ever for anyone – from NOOK customers to those experiencing digital content for the first time – to access and read books online,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble. “There’s no need to download special software to access your digital library – NOOK for Web seamlessly combines Barnes & Noble’s best-in-class digital reading experience and unrivaled NOOK Store to deliver an immersive, easy-to-use solution for readers to consume millions of titles right from their Web browser.”

With NOOK for Web, it’s also now easier than ever for NOOK customers to read their NOOK Books virtually anytime, anywhere. The perfect complement to NOOK devices and free NOOK Reading Apps™, customers can simply go to www.mynook.com to pick back up from their last page read or start reading a new book using any Web browser.

NOOK for Web features the elegant, immersive digital reading experience millions of NOOK customers have come to know and love:

Through Barnes & Noble’s free, stable and secure NOOK Cloud™ service, NOOK for Web now gives existing NOOK customers even more flexibility to Read What You Love, Anywhere You Like™ with seamless account integration and synchronization. Customers can read any book from their personal NOOK Library by signing in using a valid NOOK account. Sync the last page read from a NOOK tablet or Reader, multitude of computing and mobile devices with free NOOK Reading Apps and NOOK for Web, and keep reading virtually anytime, anywhere – all without losing the page. And customers can send free NOOK Book samples directly to an existing NOOK Library to automatically access new content on the go from any NOOK device or one with free NOOK Reading Apps.

NOOK for Web is now available at www.nook.com/NOOKforWeb with no download required. Simply browse for books in the NOOK Book Store and look for the “Read Instantly” icon to begin reading any book.