Subscription Book Service Blends Computer Algorithms with Human Editorial to Advance Serendipitous Discovery
Scribd, the leading e-book subscription service, featuring more than 500,000 titles including bestsellers and award-winners in every genre, today announced a reimagined way to digitally browse and discover books. Scribd's new browse experience brings the familiar elements of browsing a neighborhood bookstore into the digital realm, from personalized staff picks, to shelves for every category and special interest niche imaginable.
"Our goal with the new browse experience was to retain the same human touch that we have come to love about personal recommendations from a trusted friend, but use the power of technology to extend it to our catalog of over 500,000 books," said Jared Friedman, co-founder and CTO of Scribd. "The result is as if we've built every reader their own personalized bookstore, with the human touch readers love, that they are now able to carry around in their back pocket."
The foundation of the new browse experience is a proprietary category structure that allows readers to browse both at a high level, like Fiction & Literature, and a very niche level, like Biographies of Outlaws. Instead of using BISAC, a dated cataloging system, Scribd's category tree was designed from the ground up to best facilitate book discovery.
To take organization to the next level, Scribd's in-house editorial team curated tens of thousands of detailed tags about books, identifying their subjects, locations, time periods, and aesthetic qualities. Using this rich dataset, Scribd created unique collections of books tailored to specific tastes, such as "Arthurian Legends" or "Private Eye Mysteries Set In LA". These niche collections are then served up to readers based on their interests and reading activity. For example, if a reader has read a mystery thriller and a travel book about Scandinavia, Scribd might suggest the collection "Nordic Noir", a curated list of 21 Scandinavian crime novels.
"Scribd's subscription model does wonders for book discovery, because it eliminates so much of the friction that usually exists to begin reading a good book," said Trip Adler, co-founder and CEO. "Meanwhile our new browse feature alone is a huge step forward for book discovery. Ultimately we believe it's the combination of the subscription model with our innovative book discovery offering that will create a magical experience for readers, and this is just the beginning of more to come."
Scribd's new browse features include:
New look, feel, and voice – More than rows of books, the browse experience guides readers through the entire Scribd library with personal notes from Scribd's editorial team and a rich visual experience complete with custom graphics.
Topical Collections – Browse goes beyond simple categories with thousands of unique, all-new proprietary collections based on the subjects, location, time period, and aesthetic qualities of books.
Scribd Selects – Handpicked favorites from the Scribd editorial staff in every genre complete with personal blurbs.
Guest Curated Collections – Readers can explore various collections recommended by acclaimed authors, such as top sports books curated by Juliet Macur and romance reads curated by Maya Rodale.
Algorithmic Recommendations – Scribd's powerful recommendation engine offers recommendations personalized picks for the reader that update dynamically as they browse through genres. Niche collections are surfaced only to the right readers.
Top Books and Authors– Readers can browse the top books on Scribd in one place: from what's trending among Scribd readers to New York Times bestsellers to award-winners in every genre.
Scribd's all new browse experience is available now on Scribd.com and will be available in the mobile apps over the coming weeks.