Amazon Gains New Data Source
Now that Amazon has announced they are buying Goodreads, speculation is growing about what this means. Below are a few signal reactions:
Interview with Goodreads CEO Otis Chandler and Amazon’s VP of Kindle content, Russ Grandinetti, on paidContent raises many of the questions that people are asking, although answers are mostly variations of “we don’t know yet” and assurances that things will remain the same (the headline “First Do No Harm” comes from Grandinetti’s response to the question of whether Amazon reader reviews will migrate to Goodreads, “Our mentality here is to first do no harm, and make sure that if we’re going to do integrations, users genuinely find it to be a big benefit.”)
Tim Spalding, creator of Goodreads competitor, LibraryThing writes on his blog that he’s been “wanting for this forever” and expects publishers and readers will defect from Goodreads to LibraryThing
ShelfAwareness rounds up industry reactions
So far, we haven’t heard whether Goodreads members are concerned that Amazon may soon own their content.
March 29th, 2013 at 11:23 am
Let me be the first Goodreads member to tell you that I am concerned that Amazon may soon own my content. Sounds like it might be time for me to start exploring LibraryThing.
March 29th, 2013 at 3:09 pm
“So far, we haven’t heard whether Goodreads members are concerned that Amazon may soon own their content.”
Um, that Shelf Awareness article pretty clearly explores many user reactions. Mostly surprise and dismay, though I have seen one or two people excited about better GR integration with their Kindles. Other than Kindle users, I think “wary” best sums up the reaction overall.
March 30th, 2013 at 12:21 pm
I hope Andrea, other commenter, knows that LibraryThing is owned by AbeBooks. The parent company of AbeBooks is Amazon. Many people left LibraryThing several years ago to GoodReads due to the Amazon connection.
What else is out there?
April 1st, 2013 at 9:19 am
This was so disappointing. Let’s hope another resource emerges for readers.
April 1st, 2013 at 10:29 am
I just deleted my GoodReads account.
April 1st, 2013 at 5:49 pm
Fwiw, LibraryThing is not owned by AbeBooks/Amazon. LibraryThing creator Tim Spalding says: “… it’s well known that Amazon has an indirect but real stake in LibraryThing—they bought Abebooks, who were our first minority partner. People keep reporting that Amazon has 40%. That’s simply not true—it fails to take account of our second funder, Bowker. (I remain the majority; I can’t say how the rest divides up.)”
http://www.librarything.com/topic/152033