Google e-book store coming later this year

The New York Times has reported that Google is planning to announce its move into the e-book market before the end of 2009, and apparently will allow book publishers to set their own list price with Google then setting the consumers purchase price, something which Amazon does not allow. Also according to the report the books will be accessible from any device with an internet connection, also allowing buyers to read their books offline possibly by using Google Gears. Google has stated that this new program will be running separate to its current book scanning program, after reaching a settlement with publishers just months ago after a long running court battle. Google already allows users to read previews of books using their book search, and has over 1.5 million free books that available to the general public.