As Microsoft steps away from book-search initiatives, Google powers on with its once-controversial goal of scanning, archiving, and indexing every newspaper and book it can lay its hands on.

Google Book Search has announced a new set of API tools, available via Google Preview, that enable full-text search and partial browsing of books, embedding onto websites, and integration into social book sites.

Shoppers on Books-a-Million, Buy.com, and Borders.com will also be able to use Google Preview to virtually flip through potential selections on the retailers' website. They can search within the book, zoom in and out, and see up to 20% of its contents. Publishers like Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Stanford University Press have incorporated Preview into their sites, too.

The functionality of Google Preview extends also to online catalogs of the University of California, the University of Texas, and those of about 10,000 local and institutional libraries via the WorldCat.org service.

What's more, social book sites like GoodReads — used for organizing and sharing book reviews, ratings, and favorite books — will feature Preview integration with the weRead gadget.

Preview's back-end will be availed to third-party developers that wish to improve the offering or bring it to their own websites.