Amazon Invests in Shelfari

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1. ngennaro
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 12:48 am

   so which one is better LT or Shelfari? surprised with the linkages LT had with Amazon that LT did not go first but maybe Abe was just quicker?

2. SEO Mash
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 12:50 am

   LibraryThing seems to be killing Shelfari traffic-wise but a few well placed links on Amazon product pages can probably take care of that. Amazon really hasn’t thrown its hat into the social arena yet and this seems like safe entry point for them. No reason that there could not be other items on your “shelf” either - DVDs, CDs, etc. Seems like a solid yet low risk move on the part of Amazon.

3. Jonathan
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 1:02 am

   Logical move for Amazon. Reminds me of Amazon buying IMDB.com

4. David
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 1:09 am

   You guys may want to check out Anobii (http://www.anobii.com), too. It’s also an impressive Web2.0 bookshelf.

5. Hasan Jafri
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 1:10 am

   I like Shelfari for the design. It’s clean, easy on the eye, and has a super widget to help booksellers line up their titles. And — hey — they’re from Seattle, as is Amazon. Neighborly love between booksellers didn’t set the brick and mortar world on fire, but it works fine on line. Good deal :-).

6. Jodok Batlogg
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 1:42 am

   german readers might want to take a look at http://www.lovelybooks.de. it’s a really nice web2.0 bookshelf too.

7. Matt
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 6:13 am

   I like this idea as it’s helping to order opinions and knowledge in the books. It’s nice there is also a tool to ask the questions about the books - it’s pretty important.
   Anybody knows if this company was self-financed since the beginning - or there were some investmens made by eg. business angels?

8. Tim
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 6:53 am

   Jodok’s announcement brings the LibraryThing competitors list to thiry-eight, with two others in Germany alone (Buchpfade and Reliwa). The best are small projects by passionate booklovers who make what they themselves want. Leaving Shelfari out for a moment, the worst are the funded ones, MBAs who think “niche SN” is the next big thing and hire a programmer to do the dirty work. I suspect passion—by developers and by members—trumps money every time.

9. Jodok Batlogg
   

   February 25th, 2007 at 8:05 am

   tim, you’re 100% right. bookish people driving the project are extremely valuable. the input of power users like http://www.lovelybooks.de/users/Schelmuffsky or http://www.librarything.com/profile/sylphette is very important. nevertheless - amazon is driving the mainstream market and attracting big masses of users. imho collaborative/user driven recommendation is key to future success. looking forward to see what 2007 brings

10. Eric
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 8:28 am

    I still choose LibraryThing over Shelfari. Yes, Shelfari is glossy and pretty, and if Amazon throws in then who knows. BUT … LibraryThing is quick, it’s easy, and the ability to connect, comment, review, find, and discuss is also super quick and easy. LibraryThing just feels like it was made for real book-lovers … whereas Shelfari feels like it was made for … Amazon lovers?

    Shrug.

11. Glenn
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 9:03 am

    Tim mentioned that there are now 38 LibraryThing competitors. Can Tim or someone post the list of them all?

    Glenn

12. Tim
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 9:47 am

    Discussed on LibraryThing. (Fun for the whole family: Try starting this thread on other sites.)

    http://www.librarything.com/ta.....topic=7970

    Don’t worry, we’re on pretty-patrol. We’re thinking of seeing if the users want to make it prettier. They’ve already made Palm versions, BibTex export, Google Maps mashups, etc.

13. ...some Drifter
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 10:00 am

    i like amazon’s decision to play in this social media world - but i don’t like their decision of their investment into this shelfari co. or any book sharing site for that matter

    i’d rather see amazon integrate their own “web2″ features into their existing platform

14. sxtxixtxcxh
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 12:42 pm

    i run http://lib.rario.us - Nth out of 38. i think when Tim and I talked, around february or march 2006, we were #18 or so…

15. Concerned
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    Just my $0.02 here, but I really like Librarything.com for my book collection, and SwapSimple.com for swapping - but I’m biased because I have been with both for quite some time, and I guess I’m hooked. It’s just really annoying at this point, with all the supposed innovation happening, that these “new” websites keep popping up that are just rip-offs of existing services.

    Website: “Here’s the same or worse functionality your getting elsewhere, and I’ll just add a few more graphics to make your page loads slower - now come sign up.”

    Now that Amazon invested in Shelfari (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/25/amazon-invests-in-shelfari/#comments) , it’ll be interesting to see where it goes. I guess the upshot here is that soon, I won’t even need to buy things through Amazon any longer - they’ll simply have enough information about me to buy stuff for me, and then tell me that I’ll want it later.

    I like the idea behind Shelfari, but I think Amazon has enough data about me already. I do like the pretty shelf images - I haven’t seen those since I looked at mu bookshelf 3 seconds ago in my office.

    

16. Mark Williamson
    

    February 25th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

    This is Mark, one of the co-founders of Shelfari. While I can’t comment on the rumor posted by Mike, I do want to address some of the comments posted.

    First, we don’t focus on the number of other companies building “competitive sites”… we are focused on our users and the community. We have so much work to do to improve our site and empower richer interactions in our community that worrying about the x number of other sites out there is not a good use of our time.

    Second, the design of Shelfari: The team has a strong preference for “clean designs”. Some of the most successful sites (MySpace) are far from “clean” so this isn’t to say you can only have a great site by having a clean design, it is just our preference.

    In the long run we are just trying to build a great site & community that will enrich the literary experience of our users… so if you have a need that isn’t being met in this area please shoot us some feedback through the site, or to me directly.. Mark AT Shelfari.com

17. Paul
    

    February 26th, 2007 at 4:56 am

    For UK readers, http://www.readitswapit.co.uk is quite similar but also allows you to swap your books for free. It has around 100,000 books now and is the UK’s largest book swapping site. I’m hooked on using it.

18. Drama 2.0
    

    February 26th, 2007 at 7:03 am

    Mark: I would agree that once you’ve launched, “worrying” about all the other sites doing (or trying to do) the same (or similar) things as you is not a good use of time. Obviously, if Amazon has invested in you, that’s a good thing for your business, since a dominant company with relevance to your line of business has made a statement that they think you might be the winning horse.

    Pragmatically, however, it does make sense to keep an eye on what’s out there (which I’m sure you’re doing). A major factor in success is strategy, and while there may be room for multiple winners in any given market, my concern for any startup facing a crowded market is that if you cannot achieve critical mass quickly enough and a few obvious winners (in terms of marketshare) don’t emerge, the possibility that a highly fragmented market develops is very good, making it hard to build a “great” or “standout” company even if you have a “good” company.

    Good luck. Looks like an interesting service.

19. Drama 2.0
    

    February 26th, 2007 at 7:03 am

    Mark: I would agree that once you’ve launched, “worrying” about all the other sites doing (or trying to do) the same (or similar) things as you is not a good use of time. Obviously, if Amazon has invested in you, that’s a good thing for your business, since a dominant company with relevance to your line of business has made a statement that they think you might be the winning horse.

    Pragmatically, however, it does make sense to keep an eye on what’s out there (which I’m sure you’re doing). A major factor in success is strategy, and while there may be room for multiple winners in any given market, my concern for any startup facing a crowded market is that if you cannot achieve critical mass quickly enough and a few obvious winners (in terms of marketshare) don’t emerge, the possibility that a highly fragmented market develops is very good, making it hard to build a “great” or “standout” company even if you have a “good” company.

    Good luck. Looks like an interesting service.

20. Essen
    

    February 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

    SocialWay.com is a generalized version of the “book sharing” sites - it allows you to build a list of things you have (books, tools, movies etc.) and share it with people you trust (e.g, friends, friends of friends, or the general public). The motivation behind the site is to be environmental friendly by reducing co2 emissions due to sharing resources.

21. Tim
    

    February 27th, 2007 at 9:53 am

    It hit 40 today! So I made a social network on Ning called “SocialCatalogers.” It’s for people who make social cataloging sites. Seriously. Not a joke. (Nor is it confined to media catalogers. People are doing wine, beer—everything.)

    SocialCatalogers
    http://socialcatalogers.ning.com/

    Blogged about
    http://www.librarything.com/th.....o-make.php

22. Blue Tyson
    

    March 1st, 2007 at 9:34 pm

    LibraryThing is great, and is clearly the best for booklovers. It has saved me money, and enabled me to find out all sorts of information.

    Shelfari I have tried to register for, it didn’t work. So scratch them. Maybe they are down or something, but that isn’t obvious.

    Seems that it also has some absured American try and steal your copyright etc. type junk in the Terms and Conditions too. Why sign up for that? Particularly if some huge corporate partner of theirs decides that data is then theirs. Would they like my dog, too?

    Anobii was painless to sign up for, so looks like it has potential as a backup. You can import a list from LibraryThing as well, it says.

23. Blue Tyson
    

    March 1st, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    e.g. for Shelfari - pretty nice what they would like to try and take with no signature, contract, or compensation? Derivative works? Sheesh.

    If you post Content to the Site, unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Company and its affiliates a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content throughout the world in any media. You grant Company and its affiliates and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose. You represent and warrant that (a) you own and control all of the rights to the Content that you post or you otherwise have the right to post such Content to the Site; (b) the Content is accurate and not misleading; and (c) use and posting of the Content you supply does not violate these Site Terms and will not violate any rights of or cause injury to any person or entity.

24. web 1.0 oldtimer
    

    March 2nd, 2007 at 9:18 am

    it seems like shelfari’s identity is way more together than most of the competitors mentioned…