Amazon to acquire book recommendations site Goodreads

Know Goodreads? Well, Amazon today announced that it is in the process of acquiring it. Goodreads, the site for book recommendations, is where book lovers can find and share the books they love. While the terms of the acquisition were not made known, Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content, said, "Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading. Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike."

It is no rocket science to judge where Amazon would take things with the Kindle line of products with Goodreads in tow. As per the official statement, Goodreads now has over 16 million members and there are more than 30,000 book clubs on the Goodreads site. Over the past 90 days, Goodreads members reportedly have added more than four books per second to the “want to read” shelves on Goodreads. The parties are expected to close the acquisition in the second quarter of 2013.

Acquisition to complete in second quarter of 2013

For those not quite in the know, Goodreads gives users personalised book recommendations based on their reading choices. They can browse through their friends' bookshelves and post comments.

Otis Chandler, Goodreads CEO and co-founder, added, "Books – and the stories and ideas captured inside them – are part of our social fabric. People love to talk about ideas and share their passion for the stories they read. I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Amazon and Kindle. We’re now going to be able to move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers around the world. We’re looking forward to inspiring greater literary discussion and helping more readers find great books, whether they read in print or digitally."

Amazon surely looks like it is trying its best to make the Kindle device and app a destination to read pretty much everything and not just books. Previously this month, the “share” bar on the webpage of most news websites got the “send to Kindle” option. Home to some of the biggest social networking websites, the share bar allows you to share an article on your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn profiles. Now you can also send these articles onto your Kindle devices to read them later.

The read-it-later kind of button within websites is one of the first that sends articles to a specific device. There are more than a handful of extensions that usually perform the function of saving an article to be read later. Pocket and Evernote are some of the most widely used ones, but the “send to Kindle” button by Amazon changes the game a bit by changing the focus of web clippings to one device, right from the website.

The button can also be used to send clippings and articles to free Kindle apps on other devices such as Android and iOS. “Have you ever encountered news, blogs, articles and other content on the web that you want to read but don't have time to do so immediately? The Send to Kindle Button lets you easily send that content to your Kindle to read later, at your convenience,” said Amazon while describing the button on its blog.