• Guest please check The Index before starting a thread.

The Internet Book Database of Fiction / IBlist

WWWWolf

Look! A carnival wolf!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
167
Reaction score
13
Location
Oulu, Finland
Website
www.iki.fi
It looks very much like another vbulletin forum.
Most certainly not! What inexcusable, baseless slander! They're obviously using phpBB. :)

Seriously, though, I've not put much thought to this site (saw the name once in Wikipedia's article deletion debates and that's about that). Seems like yet another book-rating/commenting site, one out of many.
 

Christine N.

haz a shiny new book cover
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
7,705
Reaction score
1,336
Location
Where the Wild Things Are
Website
www.christine-norris.com
Off the top of my head I don't remember, just that they post reviews to iBD. I know there's a YA reviewer on MySpace that does it, and I've seen reviews from there posted various places. None that jump to mind though.

It's pretty easy to navigate and they seem to have a decent sized database going. But I wouldn't say it's the next PW or anything. There are tons of internet review sites, this is just another. (Some have pretty decent reputations, too)
 
Last edited:

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
13,952
Reaction score
1,746
Location
Coastal Desert
M'kay...idbof.com is down for me, but The Internet Book Database of Fiction (in association with IBList) aren't the same folks as The Internet Book Database at http://www.ibookdb.net/, right?

ETA: Right, they're different groups.
 
Last edited:

ibookdb

Registered
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
I'm Siddharth from ibookdb.net (not ibdof or iblist) and I can answer whatever questions you have about us. But just so you know all three sites, ibookdb, ibdof and iblist are all legit.
 
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
16
Reaction score
49
I'm Siddharth from ibookdb.net (not ibdof or iblist) and I can answer whatever questions you have about us. But just so you know all three sites, ibookdb, ibdof and iblist are all legit.

How do you define legit? How does ibookdb generate income? Are you a book review service? Do you charge for book reviews?
 

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
6,449
Reaction score
1,321
I don't think they do. I think they're just a 'drop a review here' kind of thing? You have to register, then you can post reviews. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.

Yep. I think they're hoping to make money from advertising eventually.

Good luck, Siddharth! There are a lot of similar sites out there right now--LibraryThing and GoodReads, for instance--but I say, "Let a thousand flowers bloom!"
 

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
20,322
Reaction score
3,513
Location
Transcending Canines
How do you define legit? How does ibookdb generate income? Are you a book review service? Do you charge for book reviews?
I presume ibookdb means legit as in they are not crooks. But I think there's a separate question of whether they are comprehensive, meaning do they have at least basic info on just about ever book currently or recently in print? I doubt any site is comprehensive by that definition except Amazon.com, and for Amazon it's only secondary and accidentally, as their main purpose is to SELL books, not make book info available to anyone who looks for it. I do rely on Amazon for a lot of stuff not book-buying-related, such as looking for other books by an author, looking up the publisher of a certain title/edition, and of course reading reviews (which are sometimes good entertainment in themselves).

Here's Wikipedia's article on book-related databases, which gives some info on ibookdb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_general-interest_book_database
About ibookdb: "It was started as an effort to be the IMDb equivalent for books. It currently contains information on over 77,000 books (over 237,000 ISBNs), 21,000 authors and 2,100 series making it one of the largest online databases of author and book information."
Hmm, not sure what numbers would be truly "comprehensive" but that's better than I suspected.
"Registered users can catalog and manage their book collections online,..." Oh, just like LibraryThing.com.

As far as reviews (and this may have no connection with what any book database is doing), I recall a Usenet newsgroup where movie (and book?) reviews were posted, apparently written by professional (or wanna-be pro) reviewers, each one with a strongly worded copyright message. It appeared the idea was for the reviewer to put it out there for newspaper and magazine editors to see, and buy print rights so they could easily add content to their publications.
 

ibookdb

Registered
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
How do you define legit? How does ibookdb generate income? Are you a book review service? Do you charge for book reviews?

We generate income from affiliate programs and advertising. We are currently offering a special on advertising BTW, but that is a separate topic. We don't charge for reviews, listings or anything else on the website at all. All our official reviewers are volunteers who review whatever they feel like. Users are also free to review anything they wish.
 

ibookdb

Registered
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
I presume ibookdb means legit as in they are not crooks. But I think there's a separate question of whether they are comprehensive, meaning do they have at least basic info on just about ever book currently or recently in print? I doubt any site is comprehensive by that definition except Amazon.com, and for Amazon it's only secondary and accidentally, as their main purpose is to SELL books, not make book info available to anyone who looks for it. I do rely on Amazon for a lot of stuff not book-buying-related, such as looking for other books by an author, looking up the publisher of a certain title/edition, and of course reading reviews (which are sometimes good entertainment in themselves).

No site can claim that. Not even worldcat, which I think is the most comprehensive source of book information. At ibookdb we currently gather information from Amazon, BN and Powells Books. We are working on Ingram and worldcat data and hopefully will have that available soon.

Also no site seems to make a serious effort in listing series information correctly except fantastic fiction and I have no idea how they do it and from where. We have volunteer editors who do this at ibookdb but are nowhere close to being done with the process.