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Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market, reports the New York Times. In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its Kindle reading device.
Google’s e-book retail program would be separate from the company’s settlement with authors and publishers over its book-scanning project. Google has discussed such plans with publishers before, but it has now committed the company to going live with the project by the end of 2009. In a presentation at BookExpo, Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, added the phrase: “This time we mean it.” Turvey said that with books, Google planned to sell readers online access to digital versions of various titles. When offline, Turvey said, readers would still be able to access their electronic books in cached versions on their browsers. Users will also be able to download the titles on various digital devices.