The internet search giant is working on a system that would allow readers to download entire books to their computers in a format that they could read on screen or on mobile devices such as a Blackberry.

With 380m people using Google each month, the move would give a significant boost to the development of e-books and have a big impact on the publishing industry and book retailers.

Jens Redmer, director of Google Book Search in Europe, said: “We are working on a platform that will let publishers give readers full access to a book online.”

He did not believe taking books online would mean the end of the printed word but it would give readers more options when it came to buying. “You may just want to rent a travel guide for the holiday or buy a chapter of a book. Ultimately, it will be the readers who decide how books are read,” he said.

He added that after many years of setbacks the electronic book looked poised to go main-stream. Commuters in Japan were already reading entire novels on their mobile phones.

Sony recently launched its Reader, a digital book device with an online book store stocking 10,000 titles. Amazon, the world’s largest online book seller, is also planning to launch an e-book service.

One of Google’s partners, Evan Schnittman of Oxford University Press, said he foresaw a number of categories becoming popular downloads: “Do you really want to go on holiday carrying four novels and a guide book?”

The book initiative would be part of Google’s Book Search service and its partnership with publishers, which will make books searchable online with publishers’ approval. At present, only a sample of each book is available online.

Google users can search the book and see snippets relevant to their search; web links then guide readers to sites such as Amazon where they can buy a physical copy of the book. Major publishers such as Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster are among those involved in the project.

Redmer would not comment on timing or which publishers would be involved. Google said the project was likely to come to fruition “sooner rather than later”.

Google has an ambivalent relationship with the publishing industry. It is being sued by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers over its deal with major libraries to scan their collections. Publishers argue the scheme infringes their copyright and Google should seek permission from them before scanning works, as they do in the partnership programme.

Ben Vershbow of the Institute for the Future of the Book, a US think-tank, said: “Google seems to be simultaneously petting the industry and saying everything is going to be all right if they just let everything go, but at the same time telling them: ‘We have you guys up against the wall’.”