As if the scanning and indexing of entire books in Google Books (formerly known as Google Print) wasn't controversial enough, Google is now reportedly planning on launching an accompanying service that will allow users to search Google Books for titles, and then allow them to download the full-text. With such a huge number of people using Google each month, such a service might give e-books a big boost.

Should downloading books become as commonplace as Google is hoping it will, it could potentially have a major impact on publishers. Some publishers, book sellers, and even librarians have suggested that if popularity in e-books were to surge that books might disappear in favor of electronic versions. I don't think this will happen, at least not any time soon. Reading a book on a tiny screen or even a laptop is hard on the eyes, and unless some kind of advancement in technology prevents this in the future (and becomes commonplace and easily accessible to all), I don't think it will take off as much as some suggest.

The actual affect of a Google book download program would more likely see some categories of books more popular than others. Travel books could be one area that would become popular. I just don't see a scholarly history book becoming a popular e-book download.

Could the "Google Switch" product that was leaked earlier this week also be the device Google will try to sell to us to download books? It is rumored that they are working on a device that would allow for easy download of the e-books. And considering that Google Switch it is rumored to have no onboard storage and rely completely on internet based applications, as well as having the large touchscreen, I think the "Google Switch" could very well be the long-rumored Google phone, but also have the e-book download capabilities.

Could this be the Google Phone and the Google book download device?