Trying to eliminate duplicates from your shelf 20

Posted by Tim
on Wednesday, April 16
A frustration we know sometimes occurs is when you add a book to your shelf that you've forgotten you had previously added. The underlying cause is generally because many books have multiple editions, so if you're looking at a book page that's different then the version you've already added, it doesn't reflect. We've started to try and solve this problem by doing 3 things:

1) When you do a search result, we'll try and let you know if you have a similar book on your shelf already. In the example here, you can see that I have added one version of Catcher in the Rye, but in the second and third search results we surface that a similar book is on my shelf already.

2) We use this same logic within our recommendations and no longer will recommend you something that appears similar in title to something already on your shelf.

3) On a book page, if it appears similar to something on your shelf, we'll let you know.

We'll continue to improve this process and hope to offer ways to be able to link editions in the future in a way that is intuitive and provides the best experience possible. Happy reading!




















Comments

Leave a response

  1. penguindreams – April 16, 2008 @ 02:22 PM
    I'd love to remove duplicates. But something else which I'd love to see is for the multiple editions to be collapsed together in the presentation. The reviews and 'haves' of all the variant publications of the Lord of the Rings are more meaningful lumped together. Conversely, if they were, there'd be no need for us to remove duplicates.
  2. Christoph – April 16, 2008 @ 03:29 PM
    It would improve this application enormously if all the different editions and reprints of a book were collated under the one title. Identifying a work by ISBN alone is not enough. Look at WorldCat for inspiration (http://www.worldcat.org/)!
  3. Tim – April 16, 2008 @ 03:41 PM
    Great suggestions and linking/collapsing the editions together is something we are actively working on. Unfortunately, it is a bit harder of a technical challenge than surfacing if something is on your shelf, so it's taking just a bit longer to build. Rest assured, we are working on that solution. Cheers, Tim LivingSocial
  4. laurie wain – April 16, 2008 @ 04:49 PM
    this is a great idea, it is very frustrating because sometimes you add the same book 2 or 3 times without even knowing
  5. Ambra – April 17, 2008 @ 02:34 PM
    That's a terrific idea, I hate going through to check for doubles. But until you've eliminated most of the common causes of confusion, I'd like to offer this tip: Sort your list by author. They doubles stick out like a sore thumb then. BTW - I think this is a wonderful application, and I'm very pleased with the constant upkeep you do to make sure it's usefull. Thanks, and keep up the good work!
  6. mtmitchell – April 19, 2008 @ 08:36 AM
    Another feature might be for people who reread a book periodically. Some books I read once and never think of again. Other books I reread from time to time. A few books I reread regularly because I enjoy them so much or they mean something speial to me. Could you install a counter for each book?
  7. m – April 19, 2008 @ 09:03 AM
    great idea and very helpful in future, but how can I delete books that are already double in my shelf?
  8. jana – April 21, 2008 @ 05:53 PM
    i would like to have a notice when i'm registering the same book, thanks.
  9. RouX Renard – April 21, 2008 @ 06:04 PM
    Love the book feature! Is their a film or dvd version of this application? With the icons being film posters, or stills, or pics of the stars? That would be REALLY cool. I would add hundreds of favorite movies! regards, RouX
  10. Sue Abbott – April 23, 2008 @ 09:20 AM
    so i take it there's no way of removing the duplicate books just yet?
  11. Patrick Devitt – April 23, 2008 @ 11:12 AM
    Agree it would best to sort by author if you want to check for past duplicates -- if we were able to see more than 5 titles per page that is. Would be great to have a condensed view (maybe eliminating thumbnails) where we can select how many to view per page. It takes FOREVER to scroll thfough my titles at 5 per page.
  12. Ricard Cave – April 25, 2008 @ 05:42 AM
    I have only been using this app for half an hour and this problem - combined with the clunky interface - has led to me to stop using the app.
  13. Vanessa Dartigues – April 27, 2008 @ 08:52 AM
    It is frustrating not to be able to erase the books that I have accidentally duplicated... That would be a priority on your "to-do" list, right?
  14. Lisa Brockbank – April 27, 2008 @ 11:01 PM
    What if you just had a search bar just for your shelf? So you could search for the book within your shelf first?
  15. Paul Poulton – April 28, 2008 @ 06:12 AM
    While I'd love to eliminate the duplicates, do you think you might be able to add a feature to let me do that? Especially given multiple editions and print runs and even books that change titles from country to country (Harry Potter anyone?)
  16. Toya – April 28, 2008 @ 01:26 PM
    The "similar on your shelf" is HIGHLY unreliable. I've found it only shows up approximately half the time (usually when there is a duplicate cover). VERY frustrating. Also, why is it when I search an author very specifially, I get a lot of other, totally unrelated books? I mean, when I search Stephen King, it makes perfect sense that Owen Hill comes up (father/son, ICUWW), but why, when I search Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child, I also get those"romantic suspense" authors (Johansen, Roberts, etc)? It's not constant, but it is a pain in the tookus.
  17. Karen – May 01, 2008 @ 12:01 PM
    Why can't I just have a "delete" button??
  18. ali – May 02, 2008 @ 07:40 AM
    this is great idea
  19. priyaa – May 12, 2008 @ 04:15 AM
    ya, a delete button is what we just need as sometimes i accidently add some books that i don't want to and would like to delete it from my list...
  20. samir – May 13, 2008 @ 06:32 AM
    hello,there
Comment