A “mini me” search engine for the book industry.

Over the years we have used large search engines to help us to navigate through the vast information space that we like to call the Internet. These search engines and their ever-growing search capabilities help us to steer our way through the vast amounts of websites that seem to appear out of nowhere on every subject imaginable. Without their capabilities we would not be able to find, let alone visit, half of the websites that we can. Although there are many sites dedicated to searching on specific topics, cultures, or within specific countries. bookhitch.com has been developed to help us delve into the information matrix within the book industry. It is a “mini me” site of sorts that is comparable to many larger search engines but of course on a smaller, book specific, scale.

Combine hard to find books, add a need for individuals within the book industry to increase awareness of these books, plus the socio-cultural trend towards using the Internet and it all equals out to bookhitch.com. There is a need for a site such as bookhitch.com coming from authors, readers and publishers alike and this website fills this need, for free. There are over 1.5 million books in print, most of which are not accessible in traditional bookstores and only about 32% of the U.S. population has entered a bookstore. These astonishing figures indicate that there should be a way for individuals to access these books all at once with the simple click of a search button. Like other larger search engines, bookhitch allows readers to navigate through the vast amount of books, and information about books that is available on numerous sites. There are thousands of websites run by authors and publishers that are not accessed by the reader. This is not because of lack of interest on the part of bookish individuals, but because they are tough to find.

bookhitch is comparable to other search engines, not just because you can search for a book, but it also provides links to other websites. This feature is seen within all major search engines, but not on websites focusing in on the book industry (not until now anyway). Individuals search for information about a book (they can, of course, search by genre too), get provided with a list of results and a basic description of each book (and in some cases a picture of the book cover). If a reader decides they like the book they can click on the link next to it to find out more information, and buy it. They are taken to an authors/publishers/stores website, whichever link is provided by the book registering user.

bookhitch is a self-sufficient website added to by authors and publishers; they create their own account, add their own books, search words, a description and a link for readers to follow. bookhitch.com is a truly unique site that has been a long time coming for the book industry. The site is helping readers to plot a course through and find the numerous books available to them, expanding their reading horizons whilst giving authors and publishers an opportunity to list their books, and increase awareness of their sites.