We already knew that Google was planning to launch a digital book distribution network this Summer, but recent comments from Google officials suggest that this is a far more significant effort than was previously expected.

Japan Today is reporting that Google has managed to secure more than 25,000 authors and publishers to participate in the service at launch, which, if you are to include the existing Google Books library will give users access to over 4 million titles.

To put that in perspective the current number of titles available through iBooks has been reported as about 60,000, Amazon for Kindle is approximately 500,000 and Barnes and Noble boasts of over 1 million “ebooks, newspapers, and magazines.”

If Google manages to support all of this material with apps and software released across all major platforms, a feat which they are certainly capable of, then they could certainly put themselves in a position to control this market in short order.

Ignoring the implications for the market as a whole this is also another piece of the Android tablet puzzle falling into place. So now we have books, we have streaming video, and we at least have someone advocating for games.

What else do you think Google needs to get in place before the tabletpalooza hits in the second half of the year?