Google is launching a new search engine which would allow anyone to search the content of books online, and observers are saying that the move “could help touch off an important shift in the balance of power between companies that produce books and those that sell them.” The service works by searching the scanned pages of books provided to Google by publishers, and offering links to online sites where the books could be purchased. Publishers are giddy over the concept, which could allow them to eventually sell books directly to consumers, but the whole enterprise may be yet more bad news for traditional booksellers.