The Random House Group has developed a 'widget' application allowing customers to read passages of writing, search inside the text and make online purchases.

The 'widget' is described as easy to install and designed so that bloggers and small site owners can host the device.

Currently available on Random House's website it is due to be added to online retailer Play.com, book wholesalers Gardners and book community websites Lovereading.co.uk and Bookrabbit.com.

Peter Bowron, Random House Group managing director, said: "We're making the widget available to everyone, whether they are a retailer, author, blogger, online book community or book enthusiast. Our overall goal is to spread widgets as far and wide across the internet as possible."

Author Sebastian Faulks has the widget available for use on more than half of his titles on his author site. He has described the device as "the best widget since the original one in the draught Guinness can".

This development in publishing IT follows the company's creation of a digital warehouse that aims to create an online backup of every title published by Random House.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.