The future of book search and recommendations

When was the last time you searched for a new book? When you were looking, did you use an online search engine? Did you go to a brick and mortar book store? Did you ask a friend for recommendations? Were you looking for a specific book? A specific type of book? Or were you just looking around to see what was out there?

These are the kinds of questions I'm looking at right now for a few projects around book marketing and search. It's led me to look into the current landscape around book search- both what is out there right now and what people are working on for the future. For my own information, though, I'm curious about what book buyers think, so I'm also running my own survey, and I'd love to hear your opinion on book search. Look at the #3 survey.

Here's what I'll look at this week:

1. Bublish: This is a beta site based around book discovery. It allows users to input genre preferences and build a profile over time. The ideas is that users will get more targeted and personalized book recommendations. Looking great so far!
2. Zola Books: I really like this company and what they are up to as an ebook retailer. They have a forthcoming recommendation engine to help people find their next book. It's the best example I've seen of a book search that starts with the last book you read, rather than the last book you bought.
3. Book Search Survey Results: I'm working on several projects that overlap in books and search, so I started my own survey to see what readers are thinking. I'll report results on Wednesday. Want to take the survey now? Go here: http://redhatproject.com/self-publishing-blog/
4. Amazon: The biggest player in the book sales and recommendation space makes recommendations based on what other people who bought the book you just bought also spent their money on. Is that a good cornerstone for an algorithm? Is it intended to sell more books or get you to the best book possible? I'll look at how Amazon's recommendations work and what I think could and should change, especially with their recent acquisition of GoodReads.
5. The Old Guard Recommendation Engines: Book search has been around for a long time. I'll look at AddALL (http://www.addall.com/) , AbeBooks (http://www.abebooks.com/), and BookFinder (http://www.bookfinder.com/)

Is there another book search or recommendation engine you know of or want me to look at?

Image source: Simon Welsh via flickr