Beta Book Search
OK .. I am trying to “Write software I need“, or in this case want, but there are plenty of other book search/comparison sites out there. In the interest of trying to invent a better mousetrap, take a look a the Beta Book Search.
Yes .. it’s simple,
Yes .. it doesn’t compare other stores yet,
Yes .. I link to another comparison site,
Yes .. it searches amazon,
But .. it is the start.
I have mentioned before that I like buying books online, So I thought, how hard could it be to write one of these things ?
Short answer .. What you see is probably the best part of 20 hours. By the time you join up to amazon, write some templates, muck with CSS, parse some XML, sort results, muck with CSS again .. it starts to add up. It is nice to get my hands dirty on a little project.
Anyway, I have started to use it. Seems to work ok, working on getting API access to AbeBooks and Alibris. Then I’ll be able to compare prices.