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Exciting News About Goodreads: We're Joining the Amazon Family!
When Elizabeth and I started Goodreads from my living room seven years ago, we set out to create a better way for people to find and share books they love. It's been a wild ride seeing how the company has grown and watching as more than 16 million readers from across the globe have joined Goodreads and connected over a passion for books.
Today I'm really happy to announce a new milestone for Goodreads: We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.
I'm excited about this for three reasons:
1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members.
2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.
3. Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture.
It's important to be clear that Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away. Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site—the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors—and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it's incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.
For all of you Kindle readers, there's obviously an extra bonus in this announcement. You've asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences. Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities.
Our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world. Now Goodreads can help make that happen in an even bigger and more meaningful way thanks to joining the Amazon family. (And if you want to be part of this, please check out our Jobs page for open positions. We've got a lot of hires to make!)
This is an emotional day for me. Goodreads is more than a company to me – it's something that Elizabeth and I created because we wanted it to exist. Since then it has grown a lot and become a place we love working at, full of incredibly smart and passionate people who also believe in our mission. I feel a little like a college graduate – happy to come to this milestone, nostalgic for the past amazing seven years, and incredibly, incredibly, excited for the future.
Otis
P.S. For the more official version of the announcement, here's the press release that went out today.
P.P.S. Please let us know – what integration with Kindle would you love to see the most?
Today I'm really happy to announce a new milestone for Goodreads: We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.
I'm excited about this for three reasons:
1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members.
2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.
3. Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture.
It's important to be clear that Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away. Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site—the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors—and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it's incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.
For all of you Kindle readers, there's obviously an extra bonus in this announcement. You've asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences. Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities.
Our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world. Now Goodreads can help make that happen in an even bigger and more meaningful way thanks to joining the Amazon family. (And if you want to be part of this, please check out our Jobs page for open positions. We've got a lot of hires to make!)
This is an emotional day for me. Goodreads is more than a company to me – it's something that Elizabeth and I created because we wanted it to exist. Since then it has grown a lot and become a place we love working at, full of incredibly smart and passionate people who also believe in our mission. I feel a little like a college graduate – happy to come to this milestone, nostalgic for the past amazing seven years, and incredibly, incredibly, excited for the future.
Otis
P.S. For the more official version of the announcement, here's the press release that went out today.
P.P.S. Please let us know – what integration with Kindle would you love to see the most?
Comments Showing 901-950 of 2,216 (2216 new)
message 901:
by
Linda
(new)
Mar 28, 2013 09:45PM
I'll be sharing less on goodreads. Amazon doesn't need to be the single source for words delivered to eyes in all realms.
flag
Dan wrote: "Actually, it blows my mind a bit when people say Amazon has had a devastating impact on the literary landscape. I assume they mean the bookselling landscape, since I don't imagine Amazon has had m..."Amazon certainly isn't the first of its kind, but having seen the others, I'd have to say that it is the worst of its kind. The very fact that it wouldn't allow GR to use its book data in the past and now they are suddenly jumping into bed with each other? Uh huh. When Amazon is it and what you buy is controlled by Amazon and what you read or what is offered to you is decided by Amazon, then where will we be? Capitalism requires an open market and not one company owning all. Just saying.
Amazon sells books, Amazon produces books, Amazon now owns the site where "independent" reviews were posted. Uh huh.
I don't have a ereader and I don't buy books, but I read. I love this community and interacting with the others with a love of reading. I'm sorry to see another user based online community go commercial and hope that many of the questions will be answered and that this will actually remain an independent forum.Years ago, there was BookBrowser, an early site with discussion forums and readers' advisory offered by members. Content was bought by Barnes & Noble and totally trashed. I hope this doesn't happen again, but I'm not holding my breath.
Exported my books and reviews, just in case. I'll see how things pan out after the acquisition is finalized before I make any permanent decisions. I am not thrilled about this information though.
Jennifer wrote: "Now I know on Amazon your reviews are no longer your own, but Amazon's, does this mean that my reviews on GR will belong to Amazon?"I would also like an answer to this, as I think it's a very important question. Below is Amazon's policy, from their website. Sounds like you don't give up your rights, but that you do grant Amazon the right to use it however they please. Not cool. I post my reviews for fellow readers, not for use as a marketing tool.
"If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Amazon and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose..."
Val wrote: "How do we download our GoodReads data?"http://www.goodreads.com/review/import
On the right side of that page is a link to create a file with all your information.
Val wrote: "How do we download our GoodReads data?"It's really, really easy - just go to the 'help' section. Takes just a second.
Sarah wrote: "This curious since Amazon already owns and neglects Shelfari.I would say nothing needs to be done for readers except include more of the website features in to the existing app for Nook and Kindl..."
This! I left Shelfari because of the same reason. I have no where to go if Goodreads follows the same path.
Catherine wrote: "Feature Request: When I buy a book on Amazon I'd like it to automatically get added to my to read or reading shelf (unless I click a box to not post it, which I would do if it was something like a ..."I second this!!! I often do "power buys" and doubling up from Amazon to here takes me away from time spent reading! :-)
Seeing as how there's nobody from Goodreads HQ manning the comments and answering our questions and concerns, Goodreads has apparently already made the move to adopt Amazon's PR strategy of blindfolds, earplugs, and ball gags.C'mon guys. Engage us. Many of you write for a living. This is a goddamn social network. Engage us. Write some words about the biggest thing to ever happen to your site. Engage us. Hey, you know what's really important when you're the largest independent sheepherder who just sold their flock to a corporation after demonizing that very corporation just a year ago? Tending to the fricken flock. Engage us!
I'm seeing Goodread's strategy for dealing with comments as being a preview of things to come. People will start to leave now, right now. Do something about it now. I refuse to believe that you are not intelligent enough to have developed a PR strategy before announcing.
That's why I'm of the opinion that not engaging us is part of a strategy. Therefore, logically, either you Goodreads folks are insane enough to have made this announcement without a plan for the ramifications, or this silence is in fact your strategy. Silence is a really dumb strategy for a social network based on giving readers voices about the writers they enjoy.
Or everyone is drunk at the Goodreads HQ in a big party and the person who was supposed to be attending to the commenters and journalists is busy throwing up champagne. If that's the explanation, I'm cool with it. If it isn't, then ENGAGE US.
This makes me incredibly sad. Honestly Goodreads do you even care about your users anymore? Obviously not, you know as well as we do how shitty this is, otherwise you would have consulted us or even had the decency to inform us before it actually happened. Not cool Goodreads, not cool. This goes against everything Goodreads was about, or what I thought it was about anyway. Huge disappointment... enjoy the money.
I'm reading some of these comments and I'm not sure people understand. Amazon didn't "buy" Goodreads; Goodreads is joining with Amazon, which means good things for those of us using Kindles and those who love Goodreads; Amazon strives to keep things 'natural'. We can post one review and join our Amazon booklists to our Goodreads accounts. Now - having said that: Feature Request: Would love for my updates to connect automatically (2% done - quick review; 30% done - quick review, and so on!). And BTW - the more you review at Amazon, the more free things can be rained upon you (such as gift cards, products, etc.) I've been an Amazon power user for years and never had an issue with them and the community there is VERY customer centered.
You know what bothers me? That this keeps happening. Every site I put time and thought into, ends up being devoured by that great all-consuming corporate maw.And I might as well be speaking Martian with sentences like that. If money isn't your personal god, your be-all and end-all, you can no longer be part of human society. I'm moving my reviews to other sites as quickly as possible, but in the end those of us who care about things other than money will end up each in our own isolated little fortresses, forgotten and silenced.
And the rest of you will never even understand what you've given up.
Debi wrote: "I'm reading some of these comments and I'm not sure people understand. Amazon didn't "buy" Goodreads"Actually, yes they did. The press release clearly states that Amazon is "acquiring" Goodreads. That's not "is entering a partnership with Goodreads", that is "Amazon bought Goodreads".
Peter wrote: "You know what bothers me? That this keeps happening. Every site I put time and thought into, ends up being devoured by that great all-consuming corporate maw.And I might as well be speaking Marti..."
well put.
Cut and paste, Tosh. Actually I'm quite happy with my new blog and I'm sure Google will be picking up all my reviews now. Best thing is...no commercials!
Does this mean Goodreads and Shelfari will combine into one site? I mean Amazon already owns Shelfari so it seems like that is what woiuld happen.
I guess this is what people dream of when they start tech companies - selling out. Unfortunately, it means the end of my association with Goodreads. I would appreciate a company statement on what happens or has already happened to the data I have input here - is it already all Amazon's? Do I have the option of removing it all? I do not wish to give them the data they are so desperate to have. Really, really sad. I loved using this site!
I hope my connect-to-facebook doesn't affect it, I have my amazon account but I dont want my goodreads account to get lost or something, because my Author's Page is essential for me.
Susan wrote: "Well, this news should help librarything.com grow."Already owned in part by Amazon.
Wendi wrote: "Too bad. Another good independent thing bites the dust. Happy for you and the money you'll make off the cool thing you started; sad for me, and sad for the internet, which will soon be owned by Ama..."My thoughts exactly. I'm troubled by this news, and do not want everything I share here linked to Amazon. The ramifications of this change have the potential to be dreadful.
The fact that Amazon is scared for some book sites to grow better than them. I'm not saying I hate the idea, but I'm not sure to love the fact about it either.
Some books have "Google" Preview, so the first change due to the acquisition is to use Amazon's preview
Bird Brian wrote: "Coming soon...You read "The Sound and the Fury"?
People who bought this book also bought
-tent stakes
-hockey pucks
-applesauce
You read "The Velveteen Rabbit"?
People who bought this bo..."
Funny....and heartbreaking. Thanks for this and for the great reviews!
Barbara wrote: "Val wrote: "How do we download our GoodReads data?"http://www.goodreads.com/review/import
On the right side of that page is a link to create a file with all your information."
thank you!
What happens to the Goodread reviews that now reflect on the Kobo site?
I tried the exporting data and inporting into the Library Thing and it doesn't work too well. Even though I paid up, more than half my books aren't "recognised" and in the same position in the queue for checking with Amazon.com when I tried it a couple of hours ago.The following is typical of the sort of requests on here. Bold text is why I don't want these:
As you asked, here are some feature/integration requests:
1) Reading progress on Kindle should be synced with Goodreads (no more fiddling between different apps).
Definitely not. I don't want people knowing what I'm reading and where I am up to with it. Oh sure you can turn this off, but the default will be on
2) Highlights and notes on Kindle, should be synced with private notes on Goodreads.
Again no thanks. I actually edit my books on my Kobo and find it a useful editing tool, plus notes I make are not always for recording elsewhere private or not
3) When adding a new book on Kindle, it gets added to Goodreads.
Why? What I buy is not necessarily what I want others to know I buy. Smacks of big brother
4) You can see public notes on chapters & reviews synced with Goodreads.
If I want to know this info I visit Goodreads. Sometimes the comments on other people's reviews are more interesting than the reviews themselves.
5) Ability to select something in Kindle, and start a new post in Goodreads community to discuss!
Nice if you have a Kindle. I have a Kobo.
Add to this, the fact that Otis thinks "dislikes" are negative. Funny about that, in Amazon there is the ability to find a review "unhelpful" is Amazon going to turn off that feature because it's too negative?
A statement at the bottom of the paidContent piece is this: "Disclosure: Goodreads is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of GigaOM/paidContent."
Someone wanted a return on their money?
It's a shame that the owners went that path instead of asking for donations like Wikipedia does.
Discussions about what we read should not be controlled by a book seller.
It creates a monopoly.
Here is a link to an interview with Otis and Amazon exec at Paid Content:http://paidcontent.org/2013/03/28/fir...
I am really sorry to see this happen - the increasing monopoly that Amazon has in the book industry is only worsened by this move. Goodreads has been a source for independent reviews and discussion and marketing of books, without regard for their source. Amazon has a dismal history of throwing their weight around once they have the opportunity, in order to increase their market share. I think this is a highly regrettable move for Goodreads in the long run.I hope you will provide information on how to offload book lists and other information stored here, before the integration.
I don't now how to feel about this. As long has there is no changes to the site and stays how it always has been, I guess its just fine. Well see how it goes..
Ayman wrote: "Phillip wrote: "Very disturbing news after all the trouble with Amazon last year."What trouble if I may ask?"
A little over a year ago, Amazon forced Goodreads to remove all data sourced from Amazon from the Goodreads database and to do so in less than a month. Since Amazon was a major data source for members, we lost data (titles, authors, covers, etc.) on literally thousands of books. Librarians and staff made a truly herculean effort to replace as much of this data as possible before the cut-off date, but some is still on-going. (That is why you still see books with Unknown Title xxx or Unknown Author xxx.)
Susan wrote: "Here is a link to an interview with Otis and Amazon exec at Paid Content:http://paidcontent.org/2013/03/28/fir..."
Real independent reporting given this bit at the bottom of the article: Disclosure: Goodreads is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of GigaOM/paidContent.
A.B. wrote: "I tried the exporting data and inporting into the Library Thing and it doesn't work too well. Even though I paid up, more than half my books aren't "recognised" and in the same position in the queu..."I honestly don't know why more people aren't concerned about the prospect of a monopoly. Nicely laid out response.
If Amazon starts blasting me with ads....I'm outta here.
I am on the fence on this one. It's like reducing people to profile to data for analysis....to creating consumers out of them. Wonder if users will retain their trust in the site.
A.B. wrote: "I tried the exporting data and inporting into the Library Thing and it doesn't work too well. Even though I paid up, more than half my books aren't "recognised" and in the same position in the queu..."Darn straight it creates a monopoly. I don't want people knowing everything I buy on Amazon, that is my business. If I choose to let people know I will, I review after all, but that's my choice. I don't want any 'cross pollination' between a community review site and a corporate giant selling a product. It seems like a conflict of interest to me.
Debi wrote: "I'm reading some of these comments and I'm not sure people understand. Amazon didn't "buy" Goodreads; Goodreads is joining with Amazon, which means good things for those of us using Kindles..."And what about those of us who haven't drunk the Amazon kool-aid and who don't think that Amazon is the best thing ever and who actually believe that one company owning everything, the sales method, the production method and now the critique method, isn't a positive thing for a capitalistic system? Or do we simply not matter?
Candice wrote: "LOVE LOVE LOVE this news!!!"WHY?
Delightful news. Here's features that would make me happy:* Purchased books added to my to-read pile
* My GR wanted books and my amazon wish list syncronized.
* My GR reviews and scores used for amazon recommendations
* GR and Amazon reviews kepts separate, but with an option to post to both sites when posting
* An option to sync scores
* One-click purchases from GR
I'd love to have Amazon kindle prices show up in my wanted list so I can buy myself a little something when I feel I have deserved it.
I don't understand. I mean, why go through the 'break-up' then? All of us librarians worked hard to fill in data when the database was pulled out, and now, suddenly, Amazon is back? So what was that all for? Do you even care about us? Other things I would like to be addressed:
1. Will Amazon have access to my reviews without my permission?
2. Will Amazon have access to my personal information without my permission?
3. Will Amazon have access to all data pertaining to my reading behaviour (books read, kind of books I have on my shelf, etc) without my permission?
Thank you.
T. wrote: "I don't understand. I mean, why go through the 'break-up' then? All of us librarians worked hard to fill in data when the database was pulled out, and now, suddenly, Amazon is back? So what was tha..."I emailed them about these issues, and got a very vague non-answer:
"To answer your question, Goodreads and Amazon are happy with how reviews work on our respective sites and our goal is to learn from each other. We have no plans to change how our reviews work, but will look for opportunities to improve what we offer to readers."
T. wrote: "I don't understand. I mean, why go through the 'break-up' then? All of us librarians worked hard to fill in data when the database was pulled out, and now, suddenly, Amazon is back? So what was tha..."Answers, in order:
A. It seemed a good idea at the time.
B. Because you were stupid enough to work for free.
C. That's not really a question, but yes.
D. Obviously not.
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
I don't yet judge how good this will be. I just hope that Amazon is relative hands-off, and lets Goodreads management continue on, but giving strategic support (like how Salesforce left Heroku mostly alone, only giving suport (e.g, the Waza). I've seen both things happen when a startup is bought by an enterprise. I like both sites, but for very different things.
Can't help but wonder how many of the "I'm so HAPPY about this WONDERFUL NEWS!" comments are being made by Amazon or GoodReads employees.But I fear that there are enough people with their heads in the sand that Amazon hasn't had to spend a penny on them. There's never a shortage of people who are delighted to hear about the latest leap forward in regimentation and the Corporate State.
Makes you wonder about the human race, doesn't it?
Jacquie wrote: "for me, I would like to be able to post one review and have it go to both sites" me too!
