Google offers free book downloads.

Adam Smith, the product manager of Google Book Search and Google Scholar, confirmed that Google has started to offer book downloads. The books are available for download in PDF format, which is mainly due to the fact that it facilitates Google's scanning of books and direct conversion into e-books.

In fact, for a large portion of book enthusiasts, Google offering book downloads isn't exactly good news. The books available for download are all those not protected by copyright law; in other words, these books are mostly out of date. A book like "Harry Potter" is basically impossible to obtain through Google.