AMAZON'S ACQUISITION OF GOODREADS
When the news hit, The Kindle Chronicles podcast and blog by Len Edgerly posted an interesting story on it right away giving some of the background of Goodreads.
Otis Chandler's announcement for Goodreads and comments from their user base
Goodreads' own announcement and comments from their audience is of course a key read.
Another essential read is
One essential point made in the interviews:
' ...[Amazon's] Grandinetti says Goodreads will be an independent subsidiary of Amazon, like Zappos or IMDB. The site will remain based in San Francisco. Chandler remains CEO, reporting to Grandinetti. Chandler said that Goodreads’ entire team is staying on (and that the company is hiring). To the question of a redesign, he said there is “nothing specific to mention in relation to the acquisition.”'
With regard to a merging of Amazon reader reviews and Goodreads' reviews, Russ Grandinetti [RG] says he thinks there aren't any "specific plans to do that at this time" and that "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.”
I've liked that I'm never particularly aware that Amazon has done anything to stifle IMDB, Zappos, or DPreview (cameras) insofar as feeling that editorial control or operating styles have been affected in any bad way with these sites that I've enjoyed for some time.
While Chandler [OC] felt that links to other retailers like Barnes & Noble and Indiebound might be retained "if users really want those links," I think that's highly unlikely!, even for books Amazon doesn't have, as they would probably not want a wholly-owned subsidiary to drive traffic to the another store like B&N, which sells the same mainstream books.
A benefit for Goodreads customers, OC said, was the ability to bring a book "into Goodreads and enabling people to just start reading right there from the Kindle Cloud Reader. We’ve never had a good book preview feature.”
RG said that the international aspect for both Goodreaders and Amazon are "an area of opportunity for both of us to work on."
OC mentioned that, re the public API or applications interface, that "we're not going to shut [the Kobo feed] off."
There's a lot more from the interviews of course, at paidContent's site, so go there to read the rest of it and the comments.
If after reading at the sites linked above, you want to read more reactions to this merging, see this set of news results.
Earlier articles explaining Cloud Reader
. Kindle Cloud Reader arrives
. Reactions to Kindle Cloud Reader
Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.
NOTES on newer Kindles.
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