Shelfari

Better Data, Better Results

We’re excited to announce an update to our book and author catalog, which now takes advantage of Amazon’s more complete information about how different editions of a particular book are related.  Searching for a specific book will now return more concise, accurate results and you will also find that many books in a series that were previously inaccessible (due to Shelfari thinking they were the same thing) are now available to add to your shelf. For example, it used to be impossible to add more than one of the ‘Artemis Fowl’ books to your shelf:

        

        

But now you can proudly show the world that you’ve read all 6 books in Eoin Colfer’s great series. 

We’ve also introduced the ability to explicitly combine duplicate books in our catalog.  You may have noticed that searching for a book will sometimes return multiple copies of the same book.  By combining these duplicates for us, search results will become even more useful and it will ensure that information related to these books – reviews, tags and discussions – is kept in a single place rather than split among multiple editions of that book.

To access this feature, just use the combine them link you’ll find at the bottom of the page after you’ve searched for a book or author.

  

You can find out more about combining duplicate books in our Shelfari group

Best,

Amanda & the Shelfari Team

 

Changes popping up on your shelf?

We’ve been working on an easier, more enjoyable way to add books to your shelf, write reviews, add ratings, find similar books and so much more.

What’s New!

Easy Add

Just click the blue “Add” button that appears beneath each book and it will be added to your shelf.

Easy Edit

Once you've added a book to your shelf, you'll see a green “Edit” button beneath your book. Clicking Edit will display a window where you can do all that fun Shelfari stuff (reviews, ratings, tags, categorizing, etc). We've moved some features from the book page into this window so you'll be able to do everything you want with your books from anywhere on the site.

The Edit window allows you to personalize:

My Status – We’ll help you put your book on the right list (I’m Reading, Planning to Read, I’ve Read), ask members “Should I read this?”, mark the book as private, or remove it from your shelf.

My Opinion – You can add a rating, review or mark a book as a favorite.

My Edition – Tell your friends which books you own and which ones are on your wish list. You can also add notes and keep track of who borrowed your book.

My Tags – Add as many tags as you want to your book. Tags are a great way to organize your shelf and help you find similar books. Choose from suggested tags or your personal tags.

More to Do – You can recommend books to your friends, begin a discussion, read reviews or add the book to your group shelf. We’ve also added a list of books you might enjoy — you can add them right to your shelf.

You can close the Edit window by clicking “Done” (on More to Do) or by clicking the “X” in the top right.

If you want to quickly add a book to a specific list, you can still use the drop-down menu beside the add/edit button — just click to select the list you want (I’m Reading, Favorite, etc.).

More about adding & editing your books

Improved Shelf Pop-up

The shelf pop-up that appeared when you moused over a book is now smaller and disappears immediately when you move your mouse off of the book cover. This popup shows your review, rating, which list the book is on (I’m Reading, Favorite) and what other friends and members have read the book (and their rating). If you want to ask “Should I read this”, add tags or a review, simply click the Edit button beneath the book.

New FAQ

The answers to your questions are just a click away! The 'Help' menu in the upper-right corner of Shelfari will take you to our Frequently Asked Questions section.  Select a topic from the drop down menu and then click on the question that you have. You will see your answer instantly appear.

Enjoy!

Amanda & the Shelfari Team

Shiny Header, New Search

Shiny Header

Navigating and exploring Shelfari just got easier.  Your Home tab contains everything about you on Shelfari: Home page (aka “What’s New”), Public Profile, Shelf, Friends, Groups and those handy links to import books and find your friends.  The Explore tab lets you easily navigate to the Most Popular Books, Most Active Members or Most Active Groups.

New Search

You can’t miss it!  We’ve expanded our search field and advanced search options.  Not exactly sure which French cookbook your aunt, who's a huge Julia Child fan, recommended at Christmas? Why not narrow your search down by Keywords, Subject, Binding, Publisher, Language and Publish Date (in addition to: Author, Title and ISBN).  Our new advanced search works for Books, Members, Groups and Discussions. 

Happy Reading!

Amanda & the Shelfari Team

 

Getting started, gets easier

Now it's easier then ever to get started on Shelfari!  Not sure how to get involved with other Shelfarians?  Or find popular books?  No problem. The profile status module on your What's New page tells you if your profile is completed.  If your profile isn't finished, then you can click on the links provided to add books, add friends, join groups, and enjoy the benefits of being a part of the Shelfari community.     

Happy Reading in 2009!

Amanda

Happy Holidays!

Since our acquisition by Amazon.com our team has been very busy working on some exciting changes that will be coming soon. We've done many things behind the scenes that make Shelfari faster and more reliable. For those of you who have had problems finding books in the past on Shelfari, stop by and give us a try as we recently integrated with Amazon's search algorithms. Stay tuned as we have a bunch of very exciting features we will be releasing in the coming New Year!

Best Wishes,

The Shelfari Family

PS. Think we should add a new feature in 2009? We appreciate your feedback, so let us know!

New super-shelf to show off what you're reading now

Having trouble keeping up with your reading list?  Now there’s a great way to keep your I Plan to Read, Reading Now, and I’ve Read lists up to date.  Check out the new way to manage what you're reading on the “What’s New” page.

Quickly scroll through your books by using the back and forward arrows - you can view all the books in your Plan to Read, Reading Now and I've Read lists simultaneously! Move a book from Plan to Read to Reading Now or from Reading Now to I've Read with just one click of the "move to" button!  Once your books are on the I've Read list you can rate them and enter the date read from the pop up. 

 

Want to see this beautiful (yet functional) shelf elsewhere?  Then keep an eye on member profiles.

 

Happy Reading!

Amanda

 

Shelfari's new look

That time has come again, and Shelfari is getting a new facelift.  We launched a new design a few minutes ago and we're excited for you to try it out.

We spent a lot of time talking with our members, seeking to understand how they use the site and what appeared to be missing in their experience.  In those conversations, we found a very passionate group of members who love Shelfari and regularly use its sharing and expression features.  However, in those conversations we noticed that we could do a better job of serving users who simply want to see what is hot at this very moment.  Those users want to know what are the most exciting books, members, authors, and groups on Shelfari, and give our members a place they could simply browse and discover.  We responded to that request in this redesign.

Tim wrote a very detailed description of what has been updated, and I won’t duplicate that here.  Do check it out to see all of the things that have changed. But let me share some of my personal highlights
You will notice right away that tucked up near the new wood grain header is a new top-level navigation.  We took all of the personal sections from our last header and placed them neatly in the My Shelfari drop-down menu and on your home page.  The new sections—Books, Authors, Members, and Groups—each have their own new discover sections.  

The Books section has a new By Subject tab, where you can dive down into books by their genre.  On each Subject page (such as Romance), you can see which reviewers are getting the most votes for review in that subject, top reviews for that subject, and the top books.  

The Members section has a Just For You tab, where you can see members reading the same book as you, friends of friends, and members with similar shelves.  Time to make some new friends.

The Groups section has updated leaderboards, showing what’s hot in our groups.

There is also a lot going on under the hood, which is really worthy of its own post.  Suffice it to say that the CSS is completely new, the html is a lot lighter, the site loads a lot faster, and the development team feels refreshed at the opportunity to build on this new platform.

We hope you like it.  Please send us your feedback and we’ll do our best to respond quickly.

Dave

NEW! Authors Unbound

Monday marked the launch of our NEW Authors Unbound feature.  We wanted to make it easier for authors and readers to connect on Shelfari.  This new feature does just that!   Every author has an Unbound page that provides a place to share information about the author, discuss their writing and see a list of published works. Authors and readers can jot down what they know about an author, edit what someone else has written, add videos and pictures, and post favorite quotes.

TechCrunch highlighted Authors Unbound today, saying, "With the introduction of these new profiles, Shelfari is poised to become a uniquely rich repository of literary information, and has the potential to become an IMBD for books."

                  

• Authors—Now you have a forum to directly connect with Shelfari readers and fans.  You can customize your page, discuss your work and link to your Shelfari profile.
• Readers—Now you have the opportunity to share what you know and love about your favorite author. You can connect with Shelfari authors and discuss their books or create pages for your favorite authors.  Share your knowledge with the entire Shelfari community.

Come and check out some of our authors: Paulo Coelho, Dean Koontz, Elizabeth Gilbert and Octavia Butler.    

Anyone can contribute.  Anyone can edit.  Authors Unbound.

Enjoy!

Amanda

Who's reading the same books you are?

Explore Shelfari Members, Books and Groups in a whole new way.   Have you ever wondered who’s reading the same book as you are?  Want to know which books are listed the most on everyone’s Wish List?  Now you can on the NEW Explore page. 

Explore Members

To learn more about your fellow Shelfarians, come and see who’s reading the same book as you.  Find out who our newest members are and who’s online. See who has reviewed the most books, created the most tags or added the most books today (this week, this month or all time). 

Explore Books

This is the place to see which books have been recommended to you and which books have the most reviews and comments.  Also, see the top books on the Shelfari communities’ Reading, Plan to Read, Favorite, Wish List, Owned and Read shelves. 

Explore Groups

Find the perfect group for you and see which groups have the most discussion posts, books on their group shelf and members.  You can also find groups by category, newest group and see which groups have been recently active.

Top Tags

See the top 200 tags used by the Shelfari community. 

Enjoy!

Amanda

Shelfari Launches MySpace Application

MySpace Application

We are pleased to announce the launch of our MySpace application.  Now you can add books to your MySpace profile page (Shelfari members can link their accounts to the application). You can click to see a full sized version of your shelf, add & rate books, view your friends who have the Shelfari app and share it with those who don't.  Our (fantastic!) developers have been busy creating this application, so don't miss it. 

 

Recent Friend Activity Feed

The Recent Friend Activity feed has been updated.   Friend activity has been condensed into little snippets, like "Amanda has been busy shelving 24 books, writing a review and rating 11 books”.  Now you can keep up with more friends at once. 

Search Engine

The search for books, authors and friends has been optimized for quicker, better results.  Check it out!

Amanda