Coffee giant Starbucks is rolling out a digital network for customers using its free Wi-Fi in 6,800 U.S. stores. The network — which will appear as a landing page for anyone who clicks on the Wi-Fi — offers a smorgasbord of content, organized into six categories: News, Entertainment, Wellness, Business & Careers, My Neighborhood, and Starbucks. It's part of Starbucks' ongoing effort to keep people coming into its stores — and buying coffee.

Starbucks previewed a number of its content partners ahead of the launch, but there are a couple additional features, including a selection of digital books that can be read on the network and purchased through Apple’s iBooks store; integrations with Foursquare and LinkedIn; and location-based weather data from The Weather Channel.

Adam Brotman, Starbucks Digital Ventures vice president, called the network a “differentiator” from other coffee shops offering free Wi-Fi and said Starbucks will continue to add content as well as things like discounts and promotions in the future.

“What you see today, is only the beginning,” Brotman said.

Starbucks is making an interesting foray into digital books with the network. A feature called the Bookish Reading Club offers a rotating selection of digital titles from publishers Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster. People can read the books — sometimes the entire text, sometimes an excerpt — in their browser via an HTML5 reader while on the network. One of the first offerings is a preview of Anita Shreve’s upcoming novel, “Rescue.”

People who want to buy the titles will be directed to Apple’s iBooks store. The feature sets up Starbucks, which has sold physical books in its stores, as a player in digital publishing. It also gives Apple a prominent new sales channel as it battles with Amazon.com and others for the growing electronic book market. Starbucks said more publishers will be added to the reading club in the future.

Here’s a rundown of other stuff in the Starbucks Digital Network, which is being hosted and managed by search giant Yahoo:

Landing page: Foursquare check in; Starbucks card balance and rewards (if you’re logged in to the network); local weather conditions from The Weather Channel; and a “social media dashboard” with connections to Facebook, Twitter, My Starbucks Idea and You Tube.

News: New York Times Reader 2.0, WSJ.com, USA TODAY eEdition, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, and infographics from GOOD.

Entertainment: iTunes music and videos, including a digital version of the free Starbucks/iTunes Pick of the Week card program; the aforementioned Bookish Reading Club; short eBooks on business management, leadership and travel from New Word City; Nick Jr. Boost early learning games for kids; and SnagFilms documentary film festivals.

Wellness: Articles, recipes and videos from Rodale, publisher of Men’s Health, Runner’s World, and Prevention; and a “Map my Ride, Map by Run” app that helps customers find routes (often beginning or ending at a Starbucks) in their local communities.

Business & Careers: Content from LinkedIn, including a career-focused blog and videos on job seeking tips; Yahoo Finance.

My Neighborhood: Foursquare check in; DonorsChoose.org for making donations to local K-12 public and charter school projects; community news from AOL Patch; neighborhood restaurant reviews from Zagat; Flickr photos from the local area.

Starbucks: Information on new drinks, events, and offers from Stabucks; nutrition data; way to check Starbucks Card balances.

Asked about future content, Brotman said he envisions a Lifestyle category with shopping, cooking, sports and games. He also talked about community features — such as a "community corkboard" for local events and announcements; individual store blogs; and ways for customers to interact with each other in a Starbucks store.

There will be no advertising on the Starbucks Digital Network itself, though some of the content from publishers will have ads. The publishers are providing the content — some of it exclusive or normally behind a paywall — for free to Starbucks customers. Starbucks will take a cut of revenue from ads or subscriptions coming out of the network.

The network is part of a big digital push by Starbucks.

The coffee giant on July 1 started offering free unlimited Wi-Fi service in the U.S. and Canada — playing catch-up to other coffee shops and fast-food chain McDonald's which had provided free Wi-Fi for some time. (Starbucks had previously capped free Wi-Fi at two hours and required people to log in through a cumbersome process with a Starbucks card.)

Now Starbucks is now seeking to outdo its rivals by building a proprietary digital network on top of its Wi-Fi service, which is powered by AT&T.

Starbucks said last month 30 million people used the free Wi-Fi, up 30 percent from previous months. The digital network will be optimized for mobile devices, "since more than half of Starbucks customers access free Wi-Fi on their smartphones," the company said.

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