Random House has unveiled a new Facebook app called BookScout that is intended to offer book recommendations through the social networking Web site. The app, created by RH's digital marketplace development group, allows Facebook users to share favorite authors and titles with their contacts, through their timeline.
The app, which includes titles from RH as well as other publishers, has buy links (to various retailers) and is powered by the "like" feature on Facebook. Elaborating, RH said that users who like a book through BookScout will get "more tailored suggestions" for titles. The process, RH added, is one in which "the more books and interests users Like, the better the recommendations will be."
BookScout works, like many social reading/recommendation apps, through incorporating a digital bookshelf. Through the BookScout digital bookshelf, users can keep track of their own recommendations, as well as track what their friends are reading, and what they like. Speaking to the app, Amanda Close, senior v-p of digital marketplace development, said: "Word of mouth is the number one way readers learn and get enthusiastic about books they want to read. By creating BookScout, Random House is helping to encourage conversations about books on Facebook, and broaden the social discovery of books in the digital space."
