The Top 10 Alternative Sources for Goodreads
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Supplemental Content to the article “Goodreads: Social Media Meets Readers Advisory,” appearing in the July/August 2013 issue of Online Searcher (Vol. 37, No. 4), pp. 38–41. SEARCHER’S VOICE The Top 10 Alternative Sources for Goodreads any libraries are now using existing social media systems for book recommendations as a way to Mengage with their users and move into the new work of social book recommendation. A quick poll of information professionals, who have decided to look beyond Goodreads for some good reads, brings up some interesting options. Here are the top suggestions from the pros. Bookish BookLikes and find other interesting blogs, bookish.com/home booklikes.com writers and avid readers.” This is a new, widely hyped project of It has the same look and feel as three well-known publishers, hoping Goodreads and allows for similar i09 Book Club to more directly connect authors and functions in organizing, sharing, io9.com/tag/io9-book-club readers through their publishers. and rating books with a strong social “io9 is a daily publication that “Bookish taps the expertise of authors, sensibility. “BookLikes gathers book covers science, science fiction, their editors and their publishers to lovers, book bloggers, reviews, writers and the future.” Its book club find you the best reads. Tell us which and avid readers from all over the operates as an online book books you like and we’ll show you world who can share their reviews discussion that often includes more like them.” and other writings, reading updates the book’s author as well. > JUL | AUG 2013 ONLINE SEARCHER SUPPLEMENTAL CONTENT SC1 IndieBRAG ratings and other social aspects. The separated file. … Our system has no .bragmedallion.com system has editors in 23 categories to commercial agenda at all (though you “We represent a group of people who help guide content and is actively can buy the recommended items are passionate about reading self- working to get content. The site has a through Amazon, of course), and is published or ‘indie’ books. We call Pinterest or Twitter feel to it, but it purely based on items that real people ourselves the Book Readers appears to be evolving rather quickly. actually like.” Appreciation Group … Our mission is to recognize quality on the part of The Reading Room YourNextRead authors who self-publish both print thereadingroom.com yournextread.com/us and digital books … The readers judge “Local and independent but also “At YourNextRead we only feature the merits of the books based on our global and social … The Reading books you have told us you have proprietary list of criteria. The single Room.com aims to provide readers read, enjoyed and recommended for most important criterion that we ask with a trusted community in which others to read … Search for a book our readers to use in judging a book is you can access good book you have already enjoyed and we will whether or not they would recommend recommendations, read the latest give you other people’s book it to their best friend. Once a book book reviews from respected sources recommendations. There should be meets this standard of quality, we such as The New York Times, and quite a few book recommendations award it our B.R.A.G. Medallion, and discover new writers, latest releases to go through and each one has along with other medallion recipients, and best sellers.” Free registration is descriptions and reviews from it is presented on this website.” required to enter into this book Amazon and Goodreads (with more community, which is organized much to come in the future).” LibraryThing like Goodreads, with clubs, librarything.com bookshelves, book reviews, author Other noteworthy, but still too new to “LibraryThing is an online service to interviews, options for connecting to evaluate, options include a new startup help people catalog their books easily. booksellers, and the ability to log your currently in development, Valioo, which SEARCHER’S You can access your catalog from reading and manage your bookshelf. is looking for beta testers. If you’re inter- VOICE anywhere—even on your mobile ested, the contact information is scan phone. Because everyone catalogs Thin Reads .valioo.com. Hunch, a relative newcom- together, LibraryThing also connects www.thinreads.com er (hunch.com), is owned by eBay. people with the same books, comes up “Thin Reads features original reviews “Hunch’s ambitious mission is to build a with suggestions for what to read next, of ebook singles, interviews and ‘Taste Graph’ of the entire web, connect- and so forth. … LibraryThing is a full- profiles of authors writing ebook ing every person on the web with their powered cataloging application, singles, and news and commentary affinity for anything, from books to elec- searching the Library of Congress, all about the ebook single market tronic gadgets to fashion or vacation five national Amazon sites, and more including an exclusive weekly analysis spots. Hunch is at the forefront of com- than 690 world libraries. You can edit of the best-selling fiction and non- bining algorithmic machine learning your information, search and sort it, fiction ebook singles sold at Amazon. with user-curated content, with the goal ‘tag’ books with your own subjects, or Thin Reads also features its own of providing better recommendations use the Library of Congress and Dewey database of more than 600 ebook for everyone.” systems to organize your collection. singles available dating back to 2010. ThirdScribe (thirdscribe.com) is still You can check out other people’s The database includes title, publication in beta but intends to be a “book based libraries, see who has the most similar date, publisher, author, description, social network dedicated to helping library to yours, swap reading length, and retail platform.” readers and authors connect” around suggestions and so forth. LibraryThing books. It aims to offer “the ability to fol- also makes book recommendations What Should I Read Next? low your authors across all social media based on the collective intelligence of whatshouldireadnext.com in one place, filtered out from all of the the other libraries.” “The latest version of WSIRN noise. You can like and get information relaunched in August 2012. The major on any book or series, interact with the Riffle new features are the ability to create authors, and share your experiences. rifflebooks.com more than one booklist, so you can Book discussions take place at the book Just released, it relies on using manage books in whatever way you page, not spread out across a hundred existing Facebook Likes and your like (and share them with other different site wide forum threads. Write friends’ Likes to form the core of your people), and … a responsive, mobile- reviews right there at the book page, and recommendations. Once Goodreads friendly version of the site. You can now you can access other reviews from across was purchased, Riffle began to adjust import a whole list of ISBN numbers the web right there as well.” There are its design to allow for reviews and from a web page or a comma- others, but these are some of the best. > JUL | AUG 2013 ONLINE SEARCHER SUPPLEMENTAL CONTENT SC2 Amazon’s History of Acquisition lthough Amazon supports internal R&D on products, services and infrastructure, it has been A noteworthy for the degree of acquisition used to build the company. The company has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to buy the technologies, software, or companies that it needs to bolster its position. The recent acquisition of Goodreads is just the latest in a long line of acquisitions that have been key to its growth and development. Here’s just a partial list of some relevant purchases. Bookpages & Telebook Junglee Corporation and thirdly having done that, for the April 1998 August 1998 purpose of shutting the site down to At the time of acquisition, Britain’s California-based Junglee gave increase its own market share now at Bookpages and Germany’s Telebook Amazon “the leading provider of 15% commission and $40 a month SEARCHER’S were two leading online booksellers advanced Web-based virtual database listing fees as opposed to Bibliofind’s flat VOICE in their countries. No longer separate (VDB) technology that can help $25 a month?” (“Amazon and Bibliofind: entities, the sites became the shoppers find millions of products on A History,” Brian Cassidy, Book Patrol, foundation of Amazon’s online the Internet.” Listing both Junglee Aug. 19. 2008; http://www.bookpatrol presence in the U.K. (amazon.co.uk) and Amazon reviews of products, this .net/2008/08/amazon-and-bibliofind- and Germany (www.amazon.de). India-focused “online product history.html#.UX36wdeYN1Y). comparison and advertising site” is PlanetAll.com still listed in beta mode. Alexa Internet August 1998 April 1999 Acquiring Sage Enterprises gave Bibliofind Gave Amazon access to a well- Amazon access to a successful suite 1999 developed, “free advertising-supported of calendaring features—including Acquired with the purchase of the Web navigation service that works with notifications and “key e-commerce company Exchange.com. “Bibliofind Internet browsers to provide useful related features of PlanetAll.com has combined with Amazon.com to information about the sites being [which were] into our main site at provide millions of rare, used, and viewed and suggest related sites” [phx Amazon.com,” Bezos noted in his out-of-print books through the world’s .corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=976 announcement of the purchase. No.1 online bookstore. Search for 64&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=232 “PlanetAll is the most innovative use millions of hard-to-find titles from our 864&highlight=]. of the Internet I’ve seen.