cool stuff.
Cool! I love that you included the online audio section!
What do the little different-colored bullets signify, in the second one?
couple of weeks?
>3
Availability. Green is yes, yellow is probably no, half is "we don't know but we can send you to their site to find out", empty is "use the phone, brother."
That's the simplest we could make it, alas.
>4
Blam!
That's the simplest we could make it, alas.
Pretty good! I like it.
Shiny.
Looks good! I love it that you say which eBook places are free.
Is it not possible to get this information from Barnes and Noble as well?
Barnes & Noble as well
That would be nice!
Brilliant! I think including the location of free ebooks is a wonderful idea.
>8
The problem is, some of the books on the un-free sites are also free. But we can't get the data reliably, so...
>9
Tell @borders on Twitter. No response yet. Indigo (the Canadian B&N) is likely.
The problem is, some of the books on the un-free sites are also free. But we can't get the data reliably, so...
I was wondering about that. Too bad.
Tell @borders on Twitter.
I don't use Twitter anyway, but what's the connection between @borders and Barnes and Noble?
The listing of book stores I hope is in addition to the old list, and not in place of it ?
I want to click through to a site that has information about the content of the book and reviews - an on-line site. I usually go there because I want more information about the book than is available on LT. I need that information before I want or care about buying the book. After I read more about the book, I may no longer be interested.
Also the listing of book stores is I hope, editable ? I don't want lots and lots of stores listed, and only a few of those I want are local.
There's a pair of points I'd like to raise about the second item (and LT local in general, in this regard).
The first point is simple enough. Would it be possible to have a link to ignore a certain bookstore? Stores may have hours that are entirely incompatible with your work hours. They may service which is, frankly, so damn shitty that you are not gonna go there again. They could be incredibly disorganized. And so on. Perhaps an "Ignore this store" option (like the "No, thanks" link on automatic recommendations) would work for these stores -- not to mention nearby stores that simply cater to a non-applicable clientele.
The other point would be more complicated to do automatically, and is probably relevant on the main Local page. It's proximity as the pigeon flies doesn't always translate neatly into how easy it is for somebody to get there*. For pedestrians, a nasty intersection may mean that it's easier (and safer) to go to a bookstore that is further away but on this side of said intersection, than a nearer one across it. Or the streets in your area could be laid out in such a way that as-the-bird-flies is entirely irrelevant for those of us who lack wings (most of the suburbs I've been to fall into this category). Will there be means to, say, manually demote certain such stores?
* it helps, of course, but easy-to-get-to doesn't necessarily follow directly from nearness
>12
Oh, I mean B&N's Twitter. Can't remember it.
>13
The link area on the right is/will be editable.
>15 (b)
What, the "change location" button?
>14
Endless customization is hard. Ultimately, a list sorted by availability and distance is pretty good most of the time. The list gets bigger if you click. And you can choose to put bookstores in your "links" area on the right.
The pigeon point is very true. One of my closest libraries is on Cliff Island, not convenient even by ferry.
>16
No, sorry. The box that will replace "Buy, borrow, swap." (It will be called "Quick Links.")
>17 I'm not sure it would be worth the complication, but it would be nice if we could at least restrict it to bookstores in a certain city. For those of us reliant on public transit, this can be much more of a deciding factor than the actual distance.
What else has to be done before this feature can be released?
It's a serious ball of code. We've been three of us working on it for a few weeks. It's practically it's own site.
We are, however, running out of things to do. We're browser testing now.
As you may have picked up, the first impetus was simply to bring the site in line with Amazon's new policy. So we had to put these links on a secondary page. The second impetus was—heck with it, if we have to put it on a secondary page, we're going to make that page the best page ever.
Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2009, 4:49pm.
You go, guys!
Thanks. Man has been a big one. I've written more screen-scraping and data-processing scripts for this than ever before.
And we're not even going to go live with the Wikipedia-parse! :)
Will/can there be an option for users to add links to other online editions?
Otherwise looks good, especially the greater integration of Local.
I'd really love an additional audio feed from the offices of LT. Wouldn't that be fun??
>23
Not initially, but soon.
Two weeks! two weeks!
*had to say it*
I've never had much use for Local because, let's face it, I live in a crappy small town that has no good bookstores anywhere in a 20-mile radius.
However! The first teaser is awesome! I love that it shows which e-books are free.
Thanks, Tim! This looks very promising. k4k
Tim, have you decided what to do about Amazon.ca yet? I have really missed having it on the Buy Sell Swap page since it was dropped and do hope it will be available on the new Quick Links, the sooner the better.
Was it dropped? Yes, it'll be there.
>17
Even the "No, Thanks" link is hard?
30>
Apparently it is, since despite many requests we still don't have it for Member Recommendations.
Unless it's one of those cases where not letting you get rid of something is considered a "feature" ;)
33>
Well, maybe to a third or a quarter of the punch.
Oh no, ours is much better. For starters, there is all one-edition at a time. And they have far fewer sources, and no free or ebook sources, let along the local bookstores we'll have.
Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 6:01pm.
Well they don't have ebook/free sources (which I have no use for anyway) , but the lack of sources on the page is probably based on what I have chosen for listing by my account.
In some cases, they can link out to some source, but they don't know if the source has the book. We've pre-processed some 20 sources. So there will only be a link to Project Gutenberg if there is a PG edition of the book.
Will you have the other Project Gutenberg domains? Australia has different books than the US.
I just want to say, belatedly, that this looks amazing!
Even...dare I say it...more amazing than collections, if only because it is more unexpected.
Thanks for all you do.
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