I promised I’d do this and blog about it, so here it is: I’ve been exploring the BookRabbit site recently, now that it has officially launched and is no longer in beta. I even uploaded a picture of my bookshelf. There’s free UK delivery for books bought through the site, which is one of the nicer features. In a while, I think the system will start matching what it’s seen from my bookshelf with those of others with similar books, and I can start making ‘connections’, finding recommendations of books that I may enjoy and even send messages to those people.
It reminded me of LibraryThing quite a bit, which I used to use till a few months ago. LibraryThing also offers users the ability to start conversations, but the BookRabbit site seems more user-friendly, from what I’ve seen so far. It’s something about the ability to see bookshelves I think, which sounds rather silly but when you come to it, actually makes a difference. It’s also better-designed, and offers the user the opportunity to buy books they like right there.
If a site is better than another one with similar features, its because it responds to user needs better and makes them feel more comfortable using it – think of Facebook‘s continuing efforts to introduce features that users want. At this point, LibraryThing probably has more users just because it is older, but if the word about BookRabbit starts spreading, that may very well change. Here’s wishing BookRabbit the very best.
One Size Fits One 