ANobii

Infobox Website
name = ANobii
url = [http://www.anobii.com/anobi/anobii_home.php www.aNobii.com]
commercial =
type = Catalog and community
registration = Free
owner =
author =


commercial = Yes
location = Hong Kong

aNobii is a social networking site targeted to worldwide booklovers. The idea behind aNobii is simple: create an online platform for avid-readers to share reviews, recommendations, and most important of all, find other similar-taste booklovers.

Privately launched in August 2005, aNobii is among the earliest Web 2.0 sites in Hong Kong. However, aNobii soon grow beyond Hong Kong and now has been translated into ten different languages [cite news| first=Patman| last=Sun| url=http://appledaily.atnext.com/template/apple/art_main.cfm?&iss_id=20070611&sec_id=15307&subsec_id=15320&art_id=7199999&cat_id=5885349&coln_id=5673918| title=Web 2.0| work=Hong Kong| date=2007-06-11| accessdate=2007-06-27] .

Features

*Add books: Users can add books to their shelves by either entering ISBN code or the book title. They can also import book lists from their LibraryThing account, Amazon account, Excel Spreadsheet or a list from anywhere (a blog for example). Users can add details to the books on their shelves such as the date, place (library, bookstore, online bookstore, friends’ house…) they got them. They can also make notes to themselves or write comments about the books.
*Wish list: Users can explore others’ shelves and add the books they want to read to their wish lists.
*Margin notes: Users can make margin notes on each page, which is quite useful when the books are used as references.
*Due date alert: For books borrowed from libraries, users can activate the due date alert function. And an email will be sent to their mailbox before the due date.
*Buy/Trade/Swap/Lending: Users can trade, swap or lend the books they own. For every book the user is willing to trade s/he can set a price or a note to a willing participant. They can also enter details of the transaction such as to whom the book is lent and when they want it back. Users can buy book online by following the links to Amazon.com as well.
*Similar shelves: aNobii will automatically select similar ’shelves’ for users. Users can distinguish how similar their shelves have to be in the settings section. When a user finds a person with books s/he likes, s/he can keep track of their shelf onsite, via RSS or even by an email.
*Discussion: Each book’s page will have descriptions and comments. A voting system keeps only the most useful or interesting comments at the top. If users make new ones for each of the books, the comments will show up at the book’s page with their rating. Users can start a discussion on aNobii’s forum directly from a book or message a user directly.
*Shelf stats: Summarize user’s reading history including number of books and pages they have finished; also displays the recent visitors to their shelves.

See also

* LibraryThing
* Folksonomy
* Tags
* Bibliographic database

References

Further reading

*cite news | author= Ming Pao | url=http://www.mingpaovan.com/htm/News/20070709/wa1h.htm | title=Web 2.0 'Made in Hong Kong' | date= 2007-07-09| accessdate=2007-10-31
*cite news | author= Hong Kong Economic Times | title=Virtual Bookshelf in Hong Kong Impresses Bookworms of the Whole World | page=A35 | date= 2007-06-27| accessdate=2007-10-31
*cite news | author= South China Morning Post | title=Shelf absorbed | pages=CITY5 | date= 2007-08-02| accessdate=2007-10-31

External links

* [http://www.anobii.com aNobii official site]