I think it is safe to say that Google Book Search finally has garnered enough data for it to be useful. what better example of their recent release of Embeddable Books?. This initiative from Google Book Search is part of the now clear future Google is paving for itself in the Digital Documents space. the interesting thing is they are doing it in a completely different way from those who dominate it right now like scribd and docstoc.
They are showing them as extension of two search verticals instead of jumping at it using Google Docs. the first vertical is of course Book Search. but the second one is the recently shown at TC50 Newspaper search. at first the business model behind them was not clear because more than likely there was not one to begin with. but the new Google Book Search shows that in terms of Books. using EBooks inside a Digital Document model which allows to widgetize the experience and make it portable is the way to do enhance E-commerce and marketing for regular books selling. this is of course not the only reason. PR, Academic leverage and data mining through Social Book Sites are some of the other good uses for it.
The final and most important is to be able to test an effective Digital Document Widget and then spread that to Google Docs. something that could happen any minute now thanks to the added pressure Adobe Share and Zoho Share among the other Digital Document space leaders like the already mentioned like Scribd and Docstoc.
Right now. the entry barrier is not low enough to use this new Google Book Search feature in a way everyone can use it. but anyone with curiosity and some really minor tinkering can set up a one of the embeddable books for a blog post. this may allow for Book Bloggers (people who blog about books or about something in a book) to archive a level of interactivity and didactic value previously inexistent too. so the tool can be used for good right away.
If you want to use it now. you can generate the JavaScript code needed for one of the Google book search embeddable book viewer by going to this page:
http://code.google.com/apis/books/docs/preview-wizard.html
It is not guaranteed to work. but it is the easiest way to get them right now.
Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools via Google Book Search Blog
