Internet search giant Google announces plans to offer digital book downloads to any internet enabled device.

Anyone familiar with the progress of search giant Google will not be surprised to hear that they are now proposing to enter the eBook market.

Google Editions

The new service, to be known as Google Editions, will offer book lovers the opportunity to download electronic books in a variety of formats to any device able to connect to the web, whether it be a PC, a Netbook, Smartphone or Electronic Book Reader. The service will be browser based and will be available wherever there is an internet connection.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of Amazon’s recent launch of the international version of their Kindle book reader and has been seen, by some commentators, as a broadside shot at the retailer’s ambitions to dominate the global eBook market.

Tom Turvey, head of Google Book Search’s publisher partnership program, said the price per book would be set by their publishers and would start with between 400,000 to 600,000 books in the first half of 2010.

The new service will allow traditional book sellers to offer digital downloads of electronic books and will appeal to those who, unlike Borders and Waterstones, have not yet invested in their own digital download platform.

Google intend to act as a wholesaler rather than a straight retailer and will operate the service on a revenue share model.

Although somewhat slow to take-off in the UK, eBooks are gaining in popularity State-side with sales of eBooks totalling over $113 million in 2008 alone. With much of the market being dominated by the Amazon Kindle; and to a lesser extent the Sony Reader

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