The publishing industry is undergoing many changes as they enter the world of digital media. eBooks, online material and the paperless world have made a huge dent in their process and pocketbooks. With these changes, it has never been more important for good public relations and easily accessed reviews of their products, i.e. books, to be part of that digital media. So the move by Goodreads to no longer use Amazon’s book information for their readers could have some massive impact on Amazon’s retail business.

We found this interesting information on Information Today in their article, “Social Review Site Goodreads Dumps Amazon’s Metadata.” Goodreads is a privately held “social cataloging” website that offers book reviews by other users as well as accessing online databases, such as Amazon.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.