Huge Updates Today to IndieBound.org!
Posted by matt on Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 2:09pm
We've been hard at work since our last update. IndieBound is proud to announce five major new features everyone can benefit from:
Info Pages for Books.
Now it's easier than ever to link to IndieBound and support independent bookstores on your own website. Just click on any book link or book result from our site search, and you'll be presented with a separate page with cover art and a brief book description.
Included on each page are links to buy the book online directly from a store near you, locate a store on the Indie Store Finder Map, and add the book to your Wish List, as well as a widget for linking to the book on your own website, if you're an IndieBound.org affiliate. You can also just copy and paste the book info page's URL--it's a permanent link to the book.
Try it out with the Indie Bestsellers.
Great Reads from Booksellers You Trust.
Independent booksellers are and have always been discoverers of the next big thing, the next great read, the next bestseller, and the next undiscovered gem. IndieBound.org's new Book Info Pages spotlight bookseller quotes from Indie Next List recommendations. Currently included are quotes from all Indie Next List Great Reads and Notables, including specialty lists, going back to the beginning of the Indie Next List in July 2008. More bookseller recommendations will be coming from the past--and the future! Stay tuned.
IndieBound To-Go: Make it Your Own.
Take it to the streets with IndieBound art files. We're making some of our IndieBound materials freely available to other indie retailers and enthusiasts. IndieBound To-Go equips you with everything you need to make your own IndieBound posters, bumper stickers, buttons, T-shirts, and more. A user account in the IndieBound Community is required. And don't forget to let us know how you're using IndieBound in your community!
Improved Indie Store Finder Map.
The Indie Store Finder map is the heart and soul of the Indie Community, and we've been working hard to make it easier and more useful than ever. "More Info" links now provide expanded bubbles with store hours, descriptions, and pictures--right on the map! A "Become a Fan" button is even included, so you can show your love for several stores in your area all at once.
Bookstores are now the default option, but other business types are available--we've even added three new categories: Gift & Home, Arts & Crafts, and Restaurants, to accommodate the growing diversity of indie businesses community members have been adding to our map! And there's still an "All Indie Stores" option for a Main Street overview.
Bicycles, Bicycles Everywhere...
With the help of the National Bicycle Dealers Association, IndieBound.org has added over 4,000 independently-owned bicycle shops to the Indie Store Finder map. Bet there's one near you!
For everyone out there making the effort to shop local in 2009, know that your efforts are making a difference. IndieBound will keep spreading the word about what makes independent retail great--and we hope you'll be there with us. We have big plans for the spring and summer...it only gets better from here!
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Art of Racing in the Rain Garth Stein HarperCollins |
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Skeletons at the Feast Chris Bohjalian Crown |
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Last Night at the Lobster Stewart O'Nan Viking |
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The Story of a Marriage Andrew Sean Greer Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Comments
Huge updates to Indiebound
Wow, you all have been working really hard. I like that an affiliate can link directly to a book. And the updates to the map are great. And the book descriptions are the best. Beautiful!
Color me impressed!
Nice work, ya'll.
Fountain Bookstore
IndieBound-able
Love ALL the updates. The book info pages are wonderful!
Ditto
Yea the book pages are awsome!
You and LibraryThing Local are covering the same ground...
Not entirely literally. I'm sure you have different subsets of indie lists. Any chance of collaboration?
One problem that appeared with the lists of indie coffee places is that there are so many lists that you have to search to find which is best for an area. You need to check indiecoffeeshops.com, delocator.net, etc. not to mention yelp, traveladvisor, etc. Kinda killed / kills their usefulness. Hopefully you can find some way to work together and avoid the problem for bookstores...
Collaboration
We do, in fact, already collaborate with LibraryThing Local. We share bookstore event data with them, among other things. Certainly, there's potential for future collaboration, too, although there are some differences...LibraryThing Local focuses on businesses more as venues for events, while we're focused more on retail shopping. It's a similar functionality, but a slightly different spin. I know well the frustration dealing with multiple sites, and we're focused on building up the best and most comprehensive database of independent retail locations in the U.S.
That's great!
Not enough events at the local stores (2 in about 50mi radius) to get either interested, so I hadn't noticed. The other similarity is in the book pages and LT's links to (5 or so?) local stores. hm. I need time I don't have to read all the data licenses and look at mashups...
Collaboration with LibraryThing
It is unfortunate to see IndieBound supporting the very company that is directly threatening independent bookselling. LibraryThing is 40% owned by Amazon.com.
LT and Indies
While I understand your concern that IndieBound would cooperate with a company that has ties to Amazon, the fact is that sharing event data with LibraryThing Local benefits independent stores and raises their profile online. We make our event data available (provided sites that use it identify the source, as LT does) with the expectation that anything that helps Internet users discover independent bookstores benefits everybody.
Besides listing events for independent bookstores, LibraryThing continues to link to books for sale at indie bookstores via IndieBound, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others.
And indie restaurants?
Um, are you sure you want to list those? I suspect they outnumber the total of the rest of the categories. You'll need to rejigger your points system and hire many, many more admins to sift through them. Pretty much everything over the $15 a plate mark is not part of a major chain or franchise, and I suspect that around half, maybe a third, of the places under that are indie as well.
The Inevitable
Yes, these are good points. We've had this same discussion internally quite a bit, but ultimately it comes down to this: community users were adding restaurants anyway. We had a couple hundred of them under the "Other" category. We were asked at least once a week, by community members, IBAs, and restaurant owners why we hadn't thought of a "Restaurants" category. We don't intend to become a destination site for restaurant information. But at the same time, we can't overlook the fact that independently-owned restaurants are often cornerstones of main street economies, and enthusiastic charter members of independent businesses alliances. And a website just can't fight the tide of its own userbase.
Makes sense on all points.
And there might be a service idea in there, too. A service for local Chambers of Commerce to keep on-line business information correct (here, yelp, traveladvisor, etc.)...
Bookstore Travelers
I'd add that a lot of us are going to use IndieBound for future bookstore tourism. Having indie restaurants listed that other booklovers enjoy will be helpful for trip planning.
I wish I'd had IndieBound when I was a publisher sales rep - would have made finding local places to drink and eat much easier.
Some nice updated you have
Some nice updated you have there.
Good to see IB being updated regularly.
cool features
I like all the features very much.. especially info pages for books is too cool!
Love all the updates. It
Love all the updates. It makes the Indie experience even better
Thanks for the effort
The new updates are awesome. I would like to thank you guys for the work use put in around here.
Shindig
This isn't really related to this post to much. It's more about drupal.
I was wondering if you have looked at the shindigintegrater that makes drupal compliant with open social. I have only messed around with drupal at best and have been interested in open social, kinda seperately. Do you think an open social drupal install can be done? and would it be useful?
Open Social
Honestly, depending on what you want to do, you might be better off with Facebook Connect. It depends what kind of audience you're targeting--tech-savvy users, or just anybody. A lot more people are already using Facebook than Google's platform, and if bringing in new visitors is a priority you might be better served with that. I don't know much about Open Social, but I would guess it's much more flexible and open (not FB's strong suit!), if you can convince people to sign up for an Open Social account they might not already have. I looked into FB Connect for IndieBound when it first launched (FB Connect, not IB.org) but decided against it...might revisit in the future.
Bottom line is that anything is possible with Drupal, but it might hurt, especially if it doesn't work the way you'd like right out of the box.
See:
http://drupal.org/project/fbconnect
http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php