Amazon Purchases Shelfari
Shelfari announced this morning on their blog that they have been acquired by Amazon. I’m sure that this means that big enhancements are in the works for Shelfari. I have accounts with all the book sharing platforms, including Shelfari, but have found that I have little time to do anything with any of them. I haven’t updated books, my profile, or added friends to any of them. I’d like to. So what do you think of the announcement?
Is Amazon trying to take over the blogisphere? They’ve already got connections on the book networking site I use, Library Thing and I’m sure many others as well.
on August 26th, 2008 at 9:59 amI don’t use Shelfari myself, but I use LibraryThing quite actively. Amazon recently acquired a 40% share in LibraryThing through their purchase of AbeBooks. What I really wonder is what their goal is in grabbing these companies.
With Shelfari it may seem obvious since Shelfari already uses Amazon data exclusively — not to their betterment, I’d imagine, since I’ve found Amazon data to often be pretty shoddy — and Amazon’s purchase will no doubt lead to further integration between the two. I mostly wonder how it will affect my beloved LT.
If you’re interested in the non-Shelfarian pov, there’s an excellent post in this thread on LT: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=44126 (first post).
on August 26th, 2008 at 10:29 amI have never heard of Shelfari. Sounds like another big fish eating a little fish. Glad blogs don’t work that way. I don’t want to be eaten.
on August 26th, 2008 at 11:39 amI wouldn’t mind being eaten if the price was right
Interesting to hear though - I like you am registered at all the book sites like Shelfari LT and GoodReads but don’t really use them as much I suppose I should. I spend all my time reading other book blogs in Google Reader!
on August 26th, 2008 at 11:59 ami have been actively using shelfari to update my books and i even have a couple of their shelves on my blog. find it convenient. am curious to see what changes amazon will do to shelfari.
on August 26th, 2008 at 1:32 pmI like using Shelfari to update my current reading (using a widget on my site) but I’m not surprised it was purchased by Amazon. How else is the site going to cover costs.
I don’t care if Amazon takes over that kind of thing. I like Amazon (to a certain extent…).
on August 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pmI only have an account with LT and it’s fairly new so I do use it though not as extensively as I could. (I haven’t connected with as many of my online friends as I should but I keep my library up to date.) I’ll wait and see what happens, I guess.
on August 26th, 2008 at 4:55 pmI used to use Shelfari, but I found the site very slow and the users annoying. I switched to Goodreads and have been much happier.
on August 26th, 2008 at 5:47 pmI’m with you - I can’t keep up with my book site s. This might be a good thing - the acquisition. I love Amazon - so maybe it will rock !
on August 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm