I thought I'd take it for a test drive, so I started with http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books#q=%22call%20me%20ishmael%22 which rather surprisingly didn't take me to a copy of "Moby Dick". But amazingly, it did take me to a page which also contained the text I had been proposing to try next: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".

Microsoft search run on Linux.

We've posted a detailed history and overview of the service on ResourceShelf.
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/12/06/microsoft-book-search-goes-live-online/

Cool, this ResourceShelf entry is very coverage! :-)

Hmm, another live.com service that doesn't work in Safari. Although, when I tried it in Firefox, it seemed pretty fast.