• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, May 4, 2010 2:24 PM

Google will reportedly begin selling digital books by late June or July of this year, a company representative tells The Wall Street Journal. In other words, life just got more complicated for Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble. Dubbed Google Editions, the new service will allow users to buy digital copies of books they discover through its book-search service, while it will allow book retailers -- including independent shops -- to sell Google Editions on their own sites, taking the bulk of the revenue.

Chris Palma, Google's manager for strategic-partner development, just announced the timetable at a panel on Google's plans, although execs at the search giant have been discussing its plans to distribute books online for over a year. According to The Journal, "The company is hoping to distinguish itself from incumbents like Amazon by allowing users to access books from a broad range of sites using multiple devices."

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