But as per usual, Google’s approach is to not have business deals with anyone around the intent of researching, finding, and obtaining music. I honestly think that at some point this will change. SEW has a good write up with comparisons to other engine’s approaches.
In the book I spend a few pages comparing how Yahoo does music search vs. Google. The one box shortcut was a big difference, as was the fact that with Yahoo, you can actually buy the music. Google has now addressed the one box, and is also making it easy to buy music, though from partners they seem to have chosen at random (the best or the most popular music sales sites on the web, much as they have with travel and other categories).
Google’s blog post.