Stephen Colbert is rarely serious, at least not when he’s in character, but the TV host seemed genuinely surprised during a recent visit to Google to find out that the company sells ebooks.

The irony: He was there to promote his own book.

The exchange with Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, starting around the 8:00 mark in the video below, illustrates how much Google still needs to make up in “mindshare” vs. Amazon — “the one that’s named after a rain forest,” as Colbert describes it.

Schmidt: Your book is on Google Play.

Colbert: What does that mean?

Schmidt: It’s our online store. We’re going to end up being your best …

Colbert: Really? So go to Google Play! And what happens there?

Schmidt: People are going to pay you lots of money to buy your book!

Colbert: Well then it’s a wonderful service. So you go there, and you click on it, it’s like that one that’s named after a rainforest? You go to that one and you click on it, and you get it?

Schmidt:  Yes, it’s the competitor to the rainforest.

Schmidt goes points out that Android is five times larger than the iPhone, so “people will actually be reading your book on the most popular operating system.”

Watch the full video above. CNet News has additional highlights.

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