DBW featured a press release for BookLikes, a new social reading platform that is supposed to combine the features of Tumblr and Goodreads.
I consider one of my roles here is to involve trying things out, and potentially wasting my time so you don’t have to waste your. And my reaction to this site? Don’t even bother. (Click here to see what TeleRead’s Susan Lulgjuraj has to say about BookLikes.)
Everyone seems to be wanting to get into the social reading space today, and honestly, I don’t think we need yet another one. Especially not one that acts so much like Goodreads. Here’s what it looks like:
You tell me: Looks basically like Goodreads right? You’ve got the books you’re reading, the books you want to read, and the ones you have read.
There is a feature to add blog posts, which I suppose is cool, but really, who’s going to use the blog feature? I’m thinking authors. I might be wrong, but I don’t think the average reader is going to write blog posts about how much they love reading. If they want to say good (or bad) things about a book, there’s plenty of places to review books. Authors don’t need yet another blog to maintain, and I’d suggest authors just head to Goodreads instead. You can set up an author page there, and of course, the site already has an established following.
Anyone else see something in BookLikes that I’m missing? Some feature that makes it stand out from Goodreads?
I personally belive that the more choices people have the better.
You ask what makes it stand out from Goodreads? Here are few examples from our users:
– BL is independent
– BL is global (Goodreads is very US-focused)
– on BL you can share different types of posts (not only reviews) e.g. quotes, interviews with authors, interesting URLs and so on
– on BL you can run vlog
– you have your own site (instead of another profile like 16mln other users)
– you can use your own domain (for free)
– people do want to blog (especially about books)
– some even prefer our design and usability
– you can use your own affiliate ID and earn money
– you can make your reading site look just different than other peoples’ sites
First of all I think that variety is good, why should we stick only to one solution? Nowadays we seek individualism and personalization – so why not to use a site that actually gives you this? I think that BookLikes shows that with similar functionalities to GR it actually can stand out. Design is really pretty and interface very friendly and not so cluttered as on other social sites. And for features, I’m really surprised that you think than book blogs aren’t in demand. Web is filled with book blogs and with readers who want to write and read ones and this sites gives all of them opportunity of following reading landscape on one page. I think it’s an interesting and quite original idea. After all it is the reader/writer (today boundary isn’t so strict) who will decide about its value. Personally, I think BookLikes is definitely worth trying out and a place to keep an eye on.
I for one welcome competition in the market. I think that it brings innovative, and interesting features, that could revitalize the literary online social media scene. There can never be enough choice, and with Amazon’s recent acquisition of Goodreads -while already owning Shelfari- perhaps having another book haven may be beneficial for all of us. However, I have to agree with the author’s point of view regarding this services usefulness.