Google Print

I can get a fair idea of the book that comes up in the search results. By tweaking the url you can also read many of the pages from the book.
Does this feature translate into more sale for the book publisher. If you are only interested in couple of pages then buying the book becomes redundant. On the other hand, the same argument can be applied to the bookstores. If all that you are intrested in is to read a couple of pages, then you can do this in a bookstore.