Pek Pongpaet is a full time coder by day and an entrepreneurial coder by night. At the end of last summer he participated in midVentures Hackathon and came up with a new spin on book sharing called ShelfLuv.
“Since I started ShelfLuv,” said Pek, “Google introduced instant search and then some Stanford kids came out with ‘YouTube instant search’ and I incorporated that type of search functionality into ShelfLuv.”
ShelfLuv is simple to use: Go to ShelfLuv.com and log in with Facebook Connect and you’ll see a search already started for you to demonstrate the power of the site. In the search bar the letters “be” are typed in and on the bookshelf you see the current best sellers on the shelf, waiting for you to read them.
If you see a book that interests you, click on it and it grows to take up the shelf and show you the basics such as author name, its current sales rank and whether it is in paperback or hardcover. Books on the shelf that look like there is a Kindle hiding behind them indicates the title on the shelf is just that: the Kindle version.
To dig deeper, there are buttons to click on reviews of the book (see picture) and users can also click on the “buy it now” button and be taken to Amazon for purchase.
Revenue is made through Amazon’s affiliate program; for every book sold, ShelfLuv gets a small percent . This is a fantastic business model for entrepreneurs but also has Pek worried due to the current ‘Amazon Tax’ being considered by Springfield. (FG will comment on this Wednesday)
Right now Pek is working on new features for ShelfLuv. “People are going to be able to set up their virtual shelves in all kinds of cool ways,” said Pek, “and will be able to share with their friends using it. For instance, you can set up a shelf of books you want to read but haven’t yet, books you read on vacation, books you are reading now and a shelf with all your favorites for your friends to see.”
There is also going to be a timeline like Facebook’s home page, where you’ll see your friends’ latest activities on ShelfLuv. Pek is constantly working on the site and has plenty of good stuff on the way.
To find out about the updates to ShelfLuv as they happen, click on the signup graphic below and head to ShelfLuv yourself- for a bibliophile book lovin’ geek like myself, ShelfLuv is gong to be a favorite.
