Barnes & Noble has launched “My B&N“. It is the latest feature in their every expanding arsenal of online offerings.
With “My B&N” users can now “create their literary identity, connect and share insights with other readers, discover and rate new products, and keep up to date on events in their local Barnes & Noble store on BN.com” says Tom Burke, executive vice president of e-commerce for Barnes & Noble.com.
This pure social networking play solidifies the rise and importance of book social networking in the book world and will likely have an impact on the other players in the space.
Publisher’s Weekly refers to the launch as Barnes & Noble’s “answer to Shelfari, Goodreads and other social networking sites for books.” Conspicuously absent is mention of LibraryThing, the first book social networking destination. As the field grows different strains of book social networking seem to be developing based on the different relationships that people have with books. The “social” aspects of Goodreads, Shelfari and now “My B&N” differ from the “social” elements of LibraryThing. In many ways it is a microcosm of the differences that exist within the book world between new books and non-new books, and between the book as a container for content delivery and the book as an object.
One must also wonder where Shelfari is in all this. Since their acquisition by Amazon things have been eerily quiet over there. Not one blog post, no press release by Amazon announcing the acquisition and one email (with an Amazon footer) announcing a couple of new minor group discussion features. Are they too busy working on incorporating their technology with the mothership? It seems highly unlikely that Amazon will not have an answer to “My B&N” and odds are it will incorporate all or some of Shelfari’s functionality.
UPDATE: What do you know – Shelfari’s first blog post since the Amazon acquisition at the end of August appeared today, October 29th.
Previously on Book Patrol:
Shelfari Added to the Amazon Mix
The Bright Spot at Barnes & Noble : The Rise of BN.com
Shelfari Changing Course
The Book Social Networking Race : Shelfari, Goodreads and LibraryThing Accelerate
Goodreads Rising as the Year Ends in the Book Social Networking World