Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. ? Learn More
One of the exhibitors at TC Disrupt was BookLikes.com, a Polish start-up dedicated to letting you know which book you should read next – among other things. The site is essentially a bookstore melded with a recommendation engine melded with a social network. It allows you to follow your friends reading lists, prepare reading groups, and see what you should read next based on your reading history and your friends’ reading lists.
You can buy books through the platform, thereby registering your reading habits right on the site. They’ve been in public beta since June and it looks like they’re getting a bit of traction.
BookLikes is dedicated to all kinds of readers; it’s easy for anyone to find a good book thanks to the site’s highly sensitive algorithm. Unlike other sites, BookLikes considers factors such as reading preferences, general book information and social activity when providing a personal recommendation. Moreover, the algorithm is constantly learning from users’ behavior, allowing the site to give suggestions consistently tailored to people’s reading habits.
The problem with book sites like this one and, to an extent, services like BookCountry, is that reading and writing is quite solitary. Although you and your buds may have similar reading habits, it’s really hard to visit a website after you read a book simply because you’re no longer thinking about the book. Ereaders are obviously a way around this, but B&N already has their own recommendation engine as does Amazon. I could see this as useful for folks who will buy their books specifically from BookLikes but, again, it’s tough to drag the finger from the margin to the screen.
In the end, however, these things seem like they could feasibly work. Will they work on the long term? Probably not, but it’s worth a try. In they end, they can probably sell the recommendation engine once the big guys begin to lap them in the marketplace. Until then, it’s interesting to see how what books are best for you and yours.
The service is in English now and will soon be available in Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and Polish. Best of all? My favorite author is on there!
Launch Date: September 15, 2011
BookLikes - book-based social service that recommends great books based on your reading preferences. It’s a complete website for book-lovers. BookLikes gives only individualized book recommendations, books that really define you. New kind of social algorithm takes into consideration users’ reading preferences, general book information and category it belongs to as well as individual social experience. Due to that unique solution we give BookLikes members great personalized book recommendations even from newly entered book category.
Learn more View the original article here
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
