As I said in my talk post, we have spoken to Google about how to link and search Google Book Search reliably and effectively from LibraryThing.

Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to discuss much more than that. I can say that there is no substance to the rumor that Google is re-engineering CueCats to beam targeted advertisements onto your bedroom wall. I am also able to concede that the press accurately reported how Larry and Sergey beat me at drunken thumb-wrestling. But I cannot comment on whether Abby, sober and wielding a hitherto-unnoticed sixth finger, restored LibraryThing’s honor.

Here’s a hypothetical proposal. We could basically do this now, without Google’s help. And maybe Google could help.

Imagine if LibraryThing members could search across their books using Google BookSearch. That would be great, right?

But to do it, members would have to link their books to their Google account, connecting what they’ve cataloged on LibraryThing to the account that unites GMail, Blogger, Google Reader, Google Talk, Orkut, and the rest. And, by doing this, they would also connect their reading to their Google search history.

If this were to happen, connecting your LibraryThing and Google accounts would be voluntary, but searching your library all together would require that link, and require Google having all of your books from LibraryThing. I’m not sure what, if anything, Google would do with this information—perhaps nothing—but the option would be there.

What do people feel about this? Would you do it. Would allowing some absolutely private books to stay on LT help? What would make this work or not work?