I'm fast starting to believe that everything in the world is a giant conspiracy theory against me. Okay, that's me being a tad hyperbolic. Just a tad - not more, not less. There are two pieces of news that I have stumbled upon in the last seventy-two hours, which depress me to no end. Amazon Purchases GoodReads
There you have it. Amazon suddenly has a lot more power and influence in the book industry. For those of you who like graphs:
The chart is staggering. The rise of Amazon's dominance is almost unreal, but as we have our beloved bricks-and-mortar stores closing all around us, one has to wonder? How much of this industry is Amazon going to monopolise? Has it already reached the point where there is no competition in this space? At least, not from the other so-called "big players". The online stores have quite possibly already won this battle. That said, I fully believe there will be indie bookshops that will be survive - as long as there are book-lovers, there is a place for the smaller, more independent bookshops, that's more about the books, less about the money.
Yet, with Amazon purchasing GoodReads, a site "for book-lovers by book-lovers" (I'm ad-libbing), it almost seems like there will soon be no real e-competition left either. Amazon already owns The Book Depository, Shelfari (the "Shelfari by amazon.com" banner makes me cringe, ever-so-slightly), and Abe Books (by virtue of which, it has a stake in LibraryThing). The one thing we learn in high school economics is, monopolies are detrimental to the economy. It doesn't take rocket science to work that out. With the purchase of GoodReads, Amazon is one step closer to attaining that monopoly?
GoodReads is fantastic. I use it to maintain lists (boy, I love my lists!), keep track of what I am reading, and to connect with other book lovers who may not be on the blogosphere. I'd browse it for hours, peruse the quotes from a book if the book itself piqued my interest, and read reviews. Also, I spent a fair bit of time browsing through all the various editions and covers of the books, marvelling at how they have evolved through time. Yes, it is entirely possible that I have squandered precious time exploring GoodReads, much like a child in a candy store. The one option I have never used (yet always appreciated) on GoodReads is "Get A Copy" - the immediate option is 'Kobo' and then there are a bunch on 'online stores' listed in a drop-down. Amazon doesn't even feature at first glance, such that it is almost refreshing. That's going to change! It is inevitable.
With this purchase, Amazon now has a great recommendation site, that caters to passionate book-lovers and that's it. This will add an immense value to Amazon's "recommendations" (if you liked this...), which for me has been a bit hit-and-miss lately. It also means that one can expect tight integration with the Kindle and GoodReads, for, from what I have read, the Kindle social component is virtually non-existent. GoodReads, on the other hand, very very good.
I am not going to delete my GoodReads account - honestly, I don't see the point. As long as it continues giving me what it gives me right now, and doesn't undergo a complete metamorphosis after the takeover, I will carry on using it. However, if it does undergo a complete metamorphosis...
...let's not worry about that for now.
The Death Of Google Reader
Apparently, a few days ago, as part of it's spring-cleaning, the "Don't Be Evil" company that is Google announced that it would be killing Google Reader. Now, I don't know about you, but I use Google Reader excessively - to keep up with my reading blogs, tech blogs, language blogs, and well, a plethora of other random things that pique my interest at some point or the other. I suppose it is true: Google giveth, and Google taketh away. But seriously - Google Plus stays (is anyone even using it?) but Google Reader goes? I would be quite interested in getting the numbers for both those services, in terms of how actively they are being used.
I've been exploring alternatives, and while Feedly seems to be the obvious one, I'm not blown away. It's not that I am hard to please. However, Feedly doesn't seem to have:
- a web interface - instead it relies on a browser add-on.
- search functionality
- no "Mark All As Read" feature
- the ability to read in the app itself - it means, for each article, I need to visit the site.
This is all second-hand information, but it does make me worry a tad. On the bright side, it remembers the articles I've "starred" in Google Reader which is a major plus.
How about you? Are you a big Google Reader user, and if so, what alternative(s) are you leaning towards?