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Sharing Books And More

Showing only the spines of books on a vitrual bookshelf to replicate the real world would have made Shelfari a little different from Amazon's Listmania because there is very little to tell the two apart conceptually at least. Another nice touch would be to allow e-notes to annotate and comment on the text to replace the scribbles around the margins of your old dog-eared favorites - if the idea is to convey the essence of your personality through your bookshelf and not merely present an electronic inventory.

But the idea has potential and can grow in many different directions. A tour of your home complete with virtual bookshelves, wardrobes, pantry, furniture and more could open up both novel social networking and ad space options. You can Google Earth to an address that's has a virtual "open-house"and check out what's inside Goldilocks-style. Clicking on the wicker ottoman could take the visitor to a Pier 1 Imports page. Visitors may be able to beg, borrow, barter or buy stuff around your home that they fancy and leave invitations for you to return them the favor. It should not be too hard to introduce eBay style auction into the mix.

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Anonymous said…
Open house! I am not sure I want to show people my scientific experiments with dust balls and the stuff in the fridge that I am unable to identify but am afraid to touch. But seriously that would be getting a bit close to my virtual acquaintances around blogland.
11:59 PM
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