Where readers buy their ebooks? Week 2 of our Google's search experiment

Last week we started an ebook experiment. Like all experiment, it begins with a question: Where will readers look to buy their ebooks? Following the launch of Google eBookstore, its relationships with independent bookstores and Amazon's reply, the competition between ebook retailers is getting fierce.

Our assumption is that many readers will look for ebooks using a search engine and will buy from one of the first results in their search. So we randomly chose 10 books of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2010, opened Google webpage, typed each title with the word ebook and wrote down the first two results we got. We will redo it every Thursday for 10 weeks and see if there are going to be any changes in the search results.

Here are the results for week 2. In brackets you'll see the first week results. If they were the same we just wrote 'same'. And if you click on the titles, you will be forwarded to the first place on the title's search):

1. Girl by the Road at Night by David Rabe
1st place: Simon & Schuster (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (same)

2. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

3. The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble (Random House)

5. Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister
1st place: Simon & Schuster (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (same)

6. The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

7. INSECTOPEDIA by Hugh Raffles
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Random House (same)

8. Country Driving by Peter Hessler
1st place: Barnes & Noble (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (goodreads)

9. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
1st place: Random House (same)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble (same)

10. Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble (same)

As you can see this week was quite boring with almost no changes. This is not a good news for Google eBookstore that is still out of the list (although we have to say we see a growing presence of Google in lower ranks).

Here's the summary of the results:

	Amazon		B&N		Google		Publishers		Others
	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd
week 1	6	3	1	2			3	4		1
week2	6	4	1	3			3	3		0

We give 2 points for 1st place and 1 point for 2nd place:

	Amazon	B&N	Google	Publishers	Others
week 1	15	4	0	10	1
week 2	16	5	0	9	0

As you can see Amazon and B&N are gaining strength, while the publishers lost a little bit, although they are still doing better than B&N. Borders? Nada. Google? Nada. Independent bookstores? Nada.

So far no big surprises so far, but let's see how things will move forward in the next couple of weeks. We still wait for Google to show us what it can do - after all, its Google's search engine..See you next Thursday!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Where will readers buy their ebooks? Eco-Libris is following Google's search results

So where will readers look to buy their ebooks? Following the launch of Google eBookstore, its relationships with independent bookstores and Amazon's reply, the answer to this question looks unclear than ever. Or is it not?

We decided to check it out and do a little experiment. We believe that many readers will look for ebooks using a search engine and will buy from one of the first results in their search.

So we randomly chose 10 books of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2010, opened Google webpage, typed each title with the word ebook and wrote down the first two results we got. We will redo it every Thursday for 10 weeks and see if there are going to be any changes in the search results.

Our assumptions were that Amazon will get the most results now, but within 10 weeks we'll see Google winning the first or the second place on at least 20% of the cases. We do expect to see some presence of the publishers' websites and none of Independent bookstores' websites.

So let's begin. Here are the results for week 1 (If you click on the titles, you will be forwarded to the first place on the title's search):

1. Girl by the Road at Night by David Rabe
1st place: Simon & Schuster (publisher)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster

2. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
1st place: Amazon.com
2nd place: Amazon.com

3. The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie
1st place: Amazon.com
2nd place: Amazon.com

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
1st place: Amazon.com
2nd place: Random House (publisher)

5. Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister
1st place: Simon & Schuster (publisher)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster

6. The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman
1st place: Amazon.com
2nd place: Amazon.com

7. INSECTOPEDIA by Hugh Raffles
1st place: Amazon.com
2nd place: Random House

8. Country Driving by Peter Hessler
1st place: Barnes & Noble
2nd place: goodreads

9. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
1st place: Random House (publisher)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble

10. Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
1st place: Amazon.com
2nd place: Barnes & Noble

As you can see Amazon is the leading website right now in these searches, winning the 1st place 6 times (60%) and the 2nd place 3 times (30%). Publishers showed relatively surprising strength, winning the first place 3 times (30%) and the 2nd place 4 times (40%). Barnes & Noble
got one time to the first place (10%) and two times to the second place (20%).

So far no big surprises, but let's see how things will move forward in the next couple of weeks. We'll wait for Google to show us what it can do - after all, its Google's search engine..See you next Thursday!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

New research looks into the habits of e-book buyers

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) just released their Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading survey, looking into the habits of e-book buyers.

According to BISG's press release, Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading is the first study to capture data from hundreds of book buyers who also identify themselves as e-book readers. Respondents were first surveyed during a 2009-2010 cycle (November 2009 to July 2010) to find out when, why, how and where they purchase and use both e-books and e-readers, providing a baseline measure of impact in a dynamic market. Both the 2009−2010 cycle and the new 2010-2011 cycle are powered by Bowker's PubTrack Consumer.

Here some interesting findings from the 2010-2011 cycle:

- E-book buyers are buying fewer print books: more than 40% of survey respondents say they have reduced the number and dollars spent on hardcover and paperback books.

- So far, iPad shows only marginal impact on the popularity of Kindle and NOOK. It appears that heavy to moderate book buyers want a dedicated device for reading that doesn't have a lot of distractions bundled with it.

-Publishers are declining as a source of information about upcoming e-books, being replaced by retailers.

- Third parties play an important role in device acquisition: survey respondents say they more often received their device as a gift.

- When purchasing for themselves, survey respondents say they are most often motivated by a suggestion from a friend.

This is very interesting, especially as it shows you the cannibalization effect of e-books on physical books. I also wonders if the retailers they talk about as a source of information are mainly online retailers or also brick and mortar bookstores. It would be interested to find it out if e-book buyers go to bookstores to get advice and then go home (or just do it on their mobile phone) and buy the e-book in the cheapest place they find.

I didn't see the full research (prices start from $395 to non-members), but I'm quite sure the research didn't check the green side of e-book buyers' habits, so here are some questions for e-book buyers I hope they can include in the 2011-2012 cycle:

1. If you bought the e-reader, how much did you take into consideration the environmental impact of e-reader when buying it?

2. What the chances are you will read at least 18 books on your e-reader (this is the breaking-even point)?

3. Are you aware of the recycling options offered by the seller of your e-reader?

4. Do you think in general e-books are greener than physical books?

5. How many years you think you will be using your current e-reader?

5. If offered with the same quality and price, would you consider buying a "green" e-reader (one with considerably lower carbon footprint and minimal environmental and social impacts) if such an e-reader will be in the market when you will be looking for your next e-reader?

I'll be curious to see the answers to these questions!

More resources on the e-Books vs. physical books environmental debate can be found on our website at www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting Sustainable Reading!

BookRabbit: the new generation of online bookstores

Springwise is a great resource for innovative ideas in the book world. Few books ago I read there about WEbook. Last week they brought to my attention an innovative combo of online bookstore and community I didn't know about - BookRabbit.

So what's so special about it? well, firstly that's probably the only one that allows readers to upload photos of their own bookshelves (if you're only interested in bookshelves, check out the great site Your Shelves! - http://yourhomelibrary.wordpress.com/, or of course our series 'my green bookshelf').

But it's more than just the opportunity to check out other people's bookshelves. BookRabbit explain it on their website : "BookRabbit is an online bookshop that dynamically connects readers, authors and publishers through the books they own. Using BookRabbit, readers can share their passion for books, make recommendations to other readers as well as creating their own personal bookcase and catalogues online – anything from medieval falconry, through bestsellers, to educational publications for schools. BookRabbit has a simple aim – to claim back book selling and book buying, enabling readers to discover the right books for them."

So how you can interact with fellow readers on BookRabbit? well, there are many options. You can join an ongoing discussion like 'books for rainy days?' or 'books by models?' or start a new one. You can take a look a people's bookshelves, see what books are there and if you like what you see, you can send them a friend request. You can review a book, or read others' reviews, create your own categories for books, share recommendations and much more.

BookRabbit (http://www.bookrabbit.com/), which was founded by Kieron Smith and went through its public launch last month, is also a bookstore. They have more than 4m books on sale, and even more important they decided to offer the best prices on the top 100,000 titles, so they are cheaper than Amazon for these books. And they also offer free delivery within the UK.

BookRabbit is what I see as the online bookstore 2.0, combining two powerful lit applications of the digital age that so far went on different routes and never met - the online bookstore and online bookish communities/networks.

Book readers love to communicate and interact, whether it's on Facebook, Bookmooch, blogs, or other online platforms. BookRabbit understands that as an online bookstore, it makes sense to provide them with such a platform in-house, giving them useful and innovative tools to interact with each other. This way there's a much better chance that the next purchase of these readers (and it seems that many of them are avid readers) will eventually take place on the website.

I like BookRabbit's concept very much - firstly, they provide innovative interaction tools and not just copy others (kudos on the bookshelf idea!). Second, they have a real bold pledge that it's not easy at all to keep ("every week we check our prices against the top 100,000 books on Amazon UK to make sure we're cheaper"). They understand that with all the competitors out there, it's not enough to provide readers with cool platform and useful interaction tools, and count on their good will, but you also need to provide them with competitive pricing that will be compelling to their pockets.

I don't know if they'll grow to become the next Amazon (or Amazon 2.0), and I am not sure at all if that's their goal. But I am positive that they will become a model for the next generation of online bookstores (not the only one, but an important one) and we're going to see in the near future many that will try to follow them and create their version of BookRabbit.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!