Comments on: ‘Amazon to acquire Abe Books’: The consumer choice, LibraryThing and DRM angles

By: Mark Baraniecki

Mark Baraniecki — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:03:39 +0000

It’s good that Tim wants LibraryThing to stay independent.

I’ve been using LT, ABE and Amazon for years. LT is great for finding readers with similar interests and Amazon wins hands down for book reviews (a thread beside the book in question – LT won’t do it).

I agree that ABE is just a gateway to a bunch of small used bookstores.

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:31:51 +0000

But isn’t abebooks really just a gateway to a bunch of small used bookstores? That’s been my experience using it (and yes, I did buy books!).

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:33:07 +0000

Best of luck maintaining control, Tim, and many thanks for your note.

Reviews are the kind of discussion about which the typical reader cares most—even though you and I know there’s much more than that. And Amazon blends in reviews for zillions of titles. The typical reader isn’t going to bother checking blogs, even though this might change.

BUT you’re right to raise questions about the use of the word “aggregation,” which refers to blending of content from different blogs, etc. Point hereby acknowledged. I’ll rework the item.

Thanks,
David

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:11:44 +0000

Hey. Thanks for linking to my blog post.

One interesting point: Why do you think online book discussion is massively aggregated? From where I sit, it looks massively diffused. Amazon is many things, but, apart from reviews, it isn’t much a book discussion site. It’s Forums are pretty empty. Nobody else rises very high either. I see most book discussion happening on blogs and specialty sites.

Cheers.