Browse the ‘shelves of the net’ with Bookflavor

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Do you ever miss the days when getting a new book meant going to a book store and wandering between the aisles, browsing and perusing the latest works from your favorite authors?

Even though I love the age of ebooks, I do still sometimes miss those days. Well, Bookflavor is a way we can get just a little bit of those days back. And although it is not 100% finished yet, the concept is very much worth taking a closer look at, so that’s what I did.

Bookflavor is a free to use web site that is currently under development but has already reached a usable and useful format. Essentially, it offers you the chance to view the latest books in a kind of virtual book shelf. When you select, for example, the New York Times Bestseller list you will be shown a page that offers you the covers of the books currently on that list. Each cover can be clicked to open a page devoted to that book, giving you information about the plot, the author, the history of the book itself (where applicable).

BookFlavor-Screen-1

Along with that information, you’ll also (sometimes) be able to get reviews that have been posted from different people, both famous (such as critics or other authors) as well as personal reviews from people just like you that have read it. Alternately, you will eventually also be able to type in the name of a specific book or author and get information about that specific listing in the same manner. Once you find a book you like, using Bookflavor, you can easily get the link to purchase it from Amazon or another source of your choice.

BookFlavor-Screen-2

While Bookflavor is still in development, it already offers a wealth of information and shows a great deal of promise as to what the finished and final product will look like. There’s a link in the upper right corner to the Bookflavor Blog, which will keep you up to date on all the latest developments and implementations for Bookflavor, as well as a link to the Bookflavor Twitter page with similar news in tweet format. One of the most interesting things about it (and you can read more on the blog page) is that it is being developed to work in harmony with other methods of searching, specifically for books. DuckDuckGo, for example, is now capable of using bang(!) search terms through DuckDuckGo to get results from the Bookflavor engine. It is this kind of forward-thinking and planning that will make Bookflavor a major success when it finally gets out of it’s Beta stages. In the meantime, try it out, and use the Feedback link (located beneath the Twitter and Blog links) to let the developer know what you think of it, what could make it better, where you think it’s falling down. Remember, your experience with a Beta program or product may not be the same as everyone else’s so it is always useful to give feedback. Until next time, my friends!

  • Check out Bookflavor here.
  • Check out DuckDuckGo here.

 
 
 
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Born and raised overseas in a military family, B.C. Tietjens visited and lived in many places all over the world. He has worked on a number of publications and enjoys writing for different audiences, on such diverse subjects as relationships, technology, prestidigitation, self-improvement, entertaining children, and biographical stories. He currently writes primarily for Freewaregenius and enjoys the heck out of it.
  • samara

    I can’t see nothingon bookshelf, only a blank site in different browsers

  • BioBob

    Early days on this site – I wouldn’t even call it a beta at this point. Really it is more a concept page demo more than even an Alpha version, with only one book group type and only one book there showing more than a cover and blurb.

    As it appears now, I don’t see any advantage to this versus simply browsing Amazon or B & N websites and considerable disadvantages.

  • barney

    samara,
    The New York Times link produces a few books. Amazon, not yet, but at least it’s a start. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

  • Aitch

    Nothing but a blank site.
    Perhaps it would be best if you took this off until they get sorted.
    Good idea, fail.

  • Bark

    What? Is there really so little happening on the freeware arena nowadays?
    Freewaregenius used to be exciting to visit. There must be better things to write about.

  • While Freewaregenius most often posts articles about free software or sites that are completed (and that we consider to be excellent), we do also occasionally look into the future and take a look at things that we think might be excellent free software or sites of tomorrow. Bookflavor is one of those, and in fact it is functional in some ways like using DuckDuckGo, which is mentioned in the article. It does still have a long way to go before it’s a fully functional site so it may not work perfectly or for everyone, but the potential is there to become a great and useful free site, which is why I was interested enough to write about it. If your experience checking out it’s current state was less than wonderful, perhaps the feedback link on the Bookflavor site would give the developer some idea of what he needs to work on most. Certainly, I think he would appreciate all of these comments.

    There is always tons of activity in the freeware community, and news of developing sites and products is just one part of it. Unfortunately, not every article can be entertaining to every reader but there’s good news, still: There are tons more articles here, so if Bookflavor doesn’t excite you, why not take a look at some of the other posts you haven’t read yet? The article on Goodreads and Findings might be more to your liking, for example. Alternatively, there are tons of other articles on tons of other subjects. If you have specific ideas or subjects you’d like to see articles on, feel free to suggest them any time, as we highly value the input of our readers and the freeware community in general.

    Thanks for reading, friends!

    ~B.C.

  • Vic

    Regarding your comment about the good ole’ days of browsing books at a book store. I hate to be the one who break the news to you, but the good ole’ days are still here (for how much longer – who knows); All you have to do is to get up off that chair and go to the book store down the street. I did – and it was GLORIOUS! 😉

    • DaPesto

      LOL.. I was thinking the same thing driving past a HUGE B&N store…
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