Open Access News notes the start of a new book search service by commercial publishers similar to Google Books. From the article,

Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, said LibreDigital Warehouse would be a way to help authors, distributors and independent booksellers market their titles, while allowing publishers to maintain presentation quality and copyright control.

"Publishers, unlike the popular portrayal of them, have been digitizing their content for a very long time," said Schroeder. "They're very much ready for this. Obviously, they're very happy to work with people and with search engines that respect their copyright."

Yeah, right. I don't think a warm and fuzzy feeling of working with friends is motivating this. By establishing their own service, publishers may hope to diffuse one of the four fair use factors. I wouldn't be surprised to see them claim that any book in their service which is also in Google's might discourage users from accessing their service, ultimately affecting their ability to sell full access and other services. Smart move. Touché to the publishers!