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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 1,201-1,250 of 2,216 (2216 new)
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[deleted user]
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Mar 29, 2013 07:41AM
NOT happy with this. Amazon doesn't "love books", Amazon only loves money.
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As an author I look forward to the synergistic possibilities of such a combination. I will certainly make use of features to be introduced.
Moonlight wrote: "I am an Amazon customer and a Kindle owner and I think that buying Goodreads was the stupidest decision Amazon could have made. I came to Goodreads a little over a year ago because I found the Ama..."Very well said Moonlight. It is the camaraderie and unbiased opinions by other readers you trust that make Goodreads....Goodreads. I have made great friends on this site in the over 2 years I have used it. We even exchange birthday gifts and holiday presents. That is what this site is about. IMO.
I am very unhappy about this decision, to the point that I may give up on goodreads. I do not want to have ANYTHING to do with Amazon - I do not buy books or any other products from Amazon - so why would be I want to be associated with them through goodreads. Shame on you.
There is nothing remotely surprising about this: people who create something good sell out and cash in. It happens all the time. Call it The New American Dream. But to sell out to the corporation that is well on its way to monopolizing the book publishing industry and wiping out community booksellers, with all the awful homogenization and loss of diversity that this entails? You can put all the smiley faces on it that you want. It is what it is. I'll take my leave. Goodbye, Goodreads.
Congratulations on your business success. I do feel a little sad that another cool independent site is now under a big umbrella. I like that you said this: "your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads." I'm an Amazon customer, but I adamantly *do not* want my reviews and ratings from here to get ported to their site (and be owned by Amazon.)
I like the idea that was mentioned to have the reviews linked.
I'll take a wait and see attitude on this one.I'm going to particular watch how you fulfill this:
"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."
Unfortunately, I know some things will/must change now that the site is no longer independent of retailer affiliation. I hope the changes that are made are mostly good ones, or at worst non-disruptive to the core things I love about goodreads.
Best of luck, but be aware the even those who aren't jumping ship immediately will be closely scrutinizing how this plays out.
Richard wrote: "Patrick wrote: "* We don't expect to make changes to our review policy. Our reviews are obviously a strength of our site, and we don't plan to change how we handle them.* As we said in our blog p..."
Richard, my thoughts exactly. What a careful, crafty use of language. It's certainly not a "yes" or "no" answer is it.
For all others interested, Patrick Brown, a Goodreads employee, responded on page 6 of comments, message 291.
As mentioned, there should be advance notification before information is shared or posted from Goodreads to Amazon. I will stick around for now. But if there's auto-integration without the chance to opt-out then I'll quite GR. Super sad.
I can't wait, now, for the next independent, Goodreads-like site to come along so that I can leave Goodreads and go over there.
I think I understand, to whatever level that I can, the emphasis on moving with the incredibly fast times and the technological advantage. If people wanted a connection to their e-readers, they probably would have had to connect to one of the major companies, and Amazon is the logical choice. I have a Kindle and the iPad app, but I have no interest in connecting my Amazon account to my GR account. Totally separate entities that serve different purposes.But to use the words "Amazon" and "independent" doesn't compute, hence I think the emphasis on point 3 up there. I don't buy it. Amazon is a business, which doesn't necessarily make it anti-independent, but in this case it kind of does. Look for an update in Terms & Conditions pretty soon, I'd wager. It's a sign of the times. I enjoy my community here and don't really care too much about keeping my reviews.
Listen.Please ensure that all Goodreads book reviews remain solely the intellectual property of the users who write them. Please guarantee that our postings do not become the property of this corporation, Amazon. And please put this guarantee in writing.
I feel inclined to end my relationship with Goodreads here and now, as I do not want to my continued use of Goodreads to be interpreted as implicit support for the corporation that has bought it.
If our intellectual property rights aren't respected, I will most definitely end my relationship with Goodreads, and I am sure many others will also.
Please don't become like Facebook. Don't stop listening to your users -- they are the heart of this site, not the corporation with all the money.
Kimberly wrote: "Bye Bye Shelfari . . . Hello Goodreads!! I hope nothing changes with Goodreads. I hope Amazon merges my "To read" list with my Amazon Wishlist."If they do that, opt out is REALLY important.
Congrads?I do not want my book lists and reviews from GR to be on Amazon and I do not want my wish list and recent buys from Amazon to be on GR. I need them to be separate, please and thank you!
I don't post identical reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Goodreads felt like different readers.And will the Vine program work so that other readers of advance copies will be prevented from posting early reviews?
Truth be told, I have absolutely no idea what this union has in store with regards to my experience with Goodreads in the future.Of course, I loved the fact that Goodreads was community driven & letting readers like us enjoy an experience for one of our favorite hobbies but with this corporate takeover of sorts, I sincerely hope that the Amazon only uses Goodreads as a valuable resource that is to say as a tool to give its customers better choices rather than it trying to modify the site as per its own business driven goals. Overall, I hope that the flow of info only moves MOSTLY from Goodreads to Amazon rather than the other way around.
The last thing anybody needs is for Goodreads to turn into another Shelfari
The love of money trumps the love of books, I guess. Amazon is taking over the world, and here's another victory for them (and for you, of course). A loss for the rest of us. Cancelling my account.
Macartney wrote: "This is a big bummer. I understand you guys and your backers are looking to make money, but this has ripped the rug out from under everything I enjoyed about Goodreads. Amazon is undermining and de..."I agree. Although I'm happy that the people on GR are making money, this move does not bode well for independent publishers as Amazon's goal is to be the primary source to purchase books.
And as was stated, Amazon has proved that it is not the friend of the publishing industry.
I like that Kobo, GoogleBooks and Sony import GoodReads reviews into their websites and would hate to see that go away now that it is being corrupted by Amazon.
In addition, it probably won't be long before Amazon's book suggestion engine is imposed on GR giving preference to Amazon KDP Select titles.
Ohhhh well GR it was nice knowing you...
Although I'm happy that the people on GR are making money, this move does not bode well for independent publishers as Amazon's goal is to be the primary source to purchase books.And as was stated, Amazon has proved that it is not the friend of the publishing industry.
I like that Kobo, GoogleBooks and Sony import GoodReads reviews into their websites and would hate to see that go away now that it is being corrupted by Amazon.
In addition, it probably won't be long before Amazon's book suggestion engine is imposed on GR giving preference to Amazon KDP Select titles.
Ohhhh well GR it was nice knowing you...
Kelly wrote: "I guess we will never see a Barnes & Noble link anywhere now will we? Or worldcat for that matter. Maybe I should go back to librarything"
I didn't know about librarything. Thanks! I just bookmarked it as I am not happy about this merger.
If there could be a way to either automatically add my Amazon e-book purchase to a shelf, or to have the option after I purchase the book to maybe check a box on the Amazon site to add it myself that would be really nice. I have an old Nook with quite a few books on it as well, so maybe adding the same functionality for people who have different brand e-readers than the Kindle as well?Also, on the Kindle Fire there’s not currently a way to keep books organized. If there was some sort of way of organizing the books I have, that would be amazing. That was the only thing I missed about the Nook and it's shelf system when I switched over to using my new Kindle Fire.
Other than those two things, I hope nothing much changes about the Goodreads site as it’s amazing as is.
I am not a fan of Amazon purchasing Goodreads. I really enjoy having an unaffiliated site where I can read real people's reviews and track my own reading. Just that and nothing else, I don't want Amazon in that part of my life, nor do I want to buy my books from Amazon.
Everyone, booklikes.com is waiting with open arms! You can even import your goodreads list!
There are other readers beside kindle you know, Nook for instance. I don't like how I have no control over my books from Kindle, since I'm only licensing it.
Jason wrote: "For those of you distressed by this news, consider that Amazon also owns IMDB (Internet Movie Database), which has remained a separate, thriving brand and site...."Umm, no. Not at all. I have to respectfully disagree with you on this point. How well do you know IMDb? IMDb really *hasn't* remained distinct and unique. If you've spent any length of time on that site you know that Amazon dominates it to the point of uselessness.
How? Like this:
a) IMDb pounds your eyeballs with relentless, annoying, incessant advertising. It also blitzes you with constant exhortation to 'stream media' from Amazon whenever possible. Pushes 'all the latest' movies and tv shows right up in to your face, in a frantic attempt to get you to click through to the 'mother- site'.
b) IMDb has terrible site management; unresponsive helpdesk and tech support; and is run with old/outdated back-end programming; and the user-experience is littered with rules and strictures.
c) IMDb constantly makes arbitrary decisions about the presentation of movie-related data without caring how the site's users feel about any issue.
d) The forums on IMDb are a free-for-all; rampant with muckrakers, shouting kids, ugliness, vendettas, trolls, schisms, feuds, battles. Utter chaos. IMDb attracts so many users that it simply can't keep on top of the mayhem this 'doors wide open' policy created.
e) IMDb (thanks to the above concerns) has therefore had to implement draconian security measures; there are logins upon logins which must be verified to your phone via SMS or via your Amazon account. [How convenient!]. And every movie page zooms you directly to Amazon whenever you show the slightest hint of making a purchase.
f) In fact--on IMDb--you can't even mention any other means or source for buying a movie (say, in chat conversation to another user) without the conversation being deleted. How about that? Amazon products AND ONLY Amazon products are allowed to be discussed.
Does this sound like the kind of site Goodreads.com should be come? Sometimes bigger is just not better. Sometimes its a disaster.
"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."
Yeah riiiiiight. I'm already starting to look elsewhere. I may still keep an account here to track my library--but I will not spend time here. Export to csv and move on.
Ahhh, I must say I am not looking forward to Amazon sticking its nose into my business through Goodreads. I understand the motivation, but I wish you had polled yours users to see if they truly all desired this merger. Amazon is a money-vacuum, and I was always happy to be able to escape that idea of a company driven by profit when I came to this website, and I was happy to have a book site that allowed me to simply enjoy the book community instead of being on the radar constantly for that conglomerate. I'm sincerely very disappointed and sad to hear about this, and I do hope you'll change your mind about this. As others have mentioned, I hope that our information will not be shared with Amazon (any of it-- including our books most especially), but I honestly don't see that happening since Amazon would have no reason to desire Goodreads if they couldn't access the book wish lists of millions of people. :\
I don't find this exciting at all. I like amazon, and I like GoodReads, but I hate the idea that big companies are trying to domineer the Internet. I left FaceBook and will leave GoodReads if it becomes affiliated to Amazon
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 Catherine! And the reviews integrated BONUS!
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 ..."hahaha this was a funny comment. It's okay Catherine we all need a little help :p
Janosch wrote: ""I'm so very sorry you've made this decision. I understand the motivation, but I cannot but dread the inevitable changes that will come. Goodreads has long been one of the best places for books and..."I agree :(
This is a great shame. I have purposely avoided Amazon in the past and now I find they have bought all the personal information I have previously given to Goodreads. This will be the last message I post on Goodreads as I will be closing my account immediately after this.
So long folks.
So long folks.
Please make sure that the information contained in our bookshelves is not shared with amazon or any other affiliates for the purposes of marketing. I keep my shelves and profile private and I would like it to stay that way.
I have to admit, though I don't hate Amazon (and I do use their site for some things), I'm fairly disappointed about this decision. Why try to "fix" something that isn't broken, after all? I thought it was fine before... I'm really hoping it stays that way like you seem to think, but I already have several friends who are deleting their accounts because of this. Just sad.
As a Kindle user, I think there could be many benefits to this. And it will be good to be able to access Amazon's book cover database again. I'm willing to wait and see what happens.
p.s. if anyone thinks that a nice, friendly site like Goodreads.com can't actually 'fail'--go under--disappear--due to a change like this, think again. Recent years are rife with examples of companies who thought they were doing the right thing by expanding; following some 'recommended business expansion model'--but wound up killing their whole product. When a site stops listening to its users and becomes a flat, stale, stagnant corporate tool that can be a death knell.Example? Google and the 'Google+' (Google trying to imitate Facebook) experiment.
Integration of reviews, and book shelves would be awesome. Review on one, and it shows up in both places. Buy a book and it shows up on your shelf as "owned". But give us an option to not share it. Who wants to share the fact that they are reading smut if they are on the PTA?
Echoing sentiments above, just in case GR is keeping track: one of the best aspects of GR was that it was *not* owned by a company trying to sell books. I empathize with the need to eventually make a living from doing the thing one loves, but this move has gutted a vital part of the identity of GR. I too would have been willing to pay a small subscription fee rather than be subsidized by a company intent on controlling every segment of the reading ecosystem, inevitably draining away real diversity. I'll start transferring my reviews elsewhere and wait a bit to see what happens next to the GR site, but it's hard to imagine this decision being reversed, so it seems very likely I'll be cancelling my account.
Can you guys suggest some other online cataloging websites apart from LibraryThing? I am not going to stay here because I see a major conflict on interest if a book retailer (that too like Amazon) is owning this place. Why don't this company stick to improve its shelfari instead of mooching off some other website? Goodreads was built not just by the guys who wrote HTML for it but by all the content writers and Amazon thinks it can just own all of that?
Kris wrote: "Kelly wrote: "I guess we will never see a Barnes & Noble link anywhere now will we? Or worldcat for that matter. Maybe I should go back to librarything"
I didn't know about librarything. Thanks..."
Amazon own 40% of Librarything apparently.
Amy wrote: "What about us Nookies?" wonk wonk wonk wonk... :(
I'd like to see an internal forum added to each Kindle book that allows readers and authors to interact at specific points within the text. All notes and comments by readers would be available to all other readers as well as the author. Make each and every book a social network.
I have a Nook, not a Kindle and really don't want to link accounts. Amazon has some shady business practices as far as their Kindles go and deleting libraries remotely. F*** this crap. I loved the freedom this site had and am not looking forward to the Amazon merger.
Ursula wrote: "Like several, am of VERY mixed feelings. If Goodreads still allows me to do reviews, great. Are you going to pull them because I'm an author? Are you going to stay smiple and easy to post reviews, ..."Exactly. One of the main reasons that I came to GR is because although I'm an author I am also a reader and Amazon arbitrarily deleted the majority of my reviews.
I've very concerned that they will do the same thing here when they take over.
Bugmenot wrote: "Speak with your feet and speak loudly.Amazon cannot buy community, neither can Elizabeth and Otis sell it (nor should they have tried) But Amazon has forcefully and without consulting you, annexe..."
Thanks for the info, I'm going to check out those sites right now.
Kate wrote: "And after all the work we did when Amazon pulled their database *sigh*"Right?
Stephen wrote: "Echoing sentiments above, just in case GR is keeping track: one of the best aspects of GR was that it was *not* owned by a company trying to sell books. I empathize with the need to eventually make..."Exactly what I think I'll be doing as well. And I agree with the comments about paying a small subscription fee. I would much rather do that than submit the site to Amazon of all things.
