[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Anak

@davidfor. Thanks for this list. IMO, it gives a good impression what to expect. I think I'll pass on this update.

I suspect that will be the opinion of a lot of people. I made the comment during the beta that there wasn't much that would make people want to upgrade. Adding a few more fixes would have been a good idea.

Kobo should add review option to the desktop software. Much easier, and can be done off-line. But maybe that is coming with a future release.

I haven't updated the desktop app yet, so I don't know. But, I did notice the iPad app had it, so that is an alternative.

Too bad you can't rate sideloaded books anymore. I prefer to read sideloaded books. I don't think I'm gonna rate the kepub version (if present on the device) after I read the sideloaded books. Therefore, this is not an improvement for better recommendations, and very likely no benificial to increase sales.
But were ratings of sideloaded books taken into account anyway? I have no I idea.

Nothing about sideloaded books is supposed to go to the servers. So, their ratings weren't included anywhere. I think they justified removing them as other than displaying them, there is nothing that can be done with them. Or at least officially.

Kobo should (try to) match sideloaded books with their book database (based on the book metadata). And if a book can't be matched that way, then ask/give the user the opportunity to match it manually.
And use this info to improve recommendations, similar to books your are reading, etc. This should be benificial to increase sales.

This was commented on in the beta. I agree it's a good idea. I just don't know how they could do it. It was also suggested that the reviews for sideloaded books could be posted to Facebook or other social media sites. I did suggest Goodreads, but that isn't going to happen.

It is impossible to add books that I like to my wishlist. I can only add Kobo's recommendations, etc. to the wishlist. And not my own choices.

Actually, you can add any book that is in the bookstore on the device. From the lists, press the little arrow on the end of the line and "Add to Wishlist" is there. And it is on the menu when looking at the details. But neither the desktop app or the web site has the function. A weird thing to not have.

I might be wrong here, I think I know my taste better then Kobo does.
At least for now and this might change if Kobo can really improve this feature. Then they might predict with great accuracy what I like to read.

Buying a few books is what has had the most effect for me. When I bought some books for my son, the recommendations were off for a while. Once I went back to my usual purchases, the recommendations followed.