Logos Bible Software Buys Out WordSearchBible.

[GtrsRGr8]

Since this news appears not technically to belong in the "Christian Interest" thread of the "Deals and Resources" forum, I place it in this forum.

Got an email today from WordSearch Bible, I think it was, that Logos Bible Software, a LifeWay Company, is buying out (or already has bought out) WordSearch Bible, a FaithLife company.

Logos is, and maybe always has been, the 800-pound gorilla in the Bible software room. I say that largely because the functionality of Logos' Bible study tools have been far and away superior to WordSearch's. And the interface for WordSearch has, in my memory, never been as slick and attractive as Logos'.

However, I (own)owned both systems, because I saw some advantages in WordSearch's generally lower prices for add-on books that they have(had) in common with Logos, and the fact that many of the books that WordSearch offered weren't even available from Logos. On the other hand, Logos' has had a much stronger offering of academic-type books than WordSearch.

It seems that those folks who own(owned) only WordSearch Bible, have acquired, or wiil be acquiring, the (much) more expensive Logos system, but at no charge to them. Furthermore, it seems that folks who bought books in the WordSearch format will be able to keep them, albeit in the Logos orb.

The upshot is that if you (have)had only Word Search Bible, you stand to keep all of the books that you have(had) with WordSearch, have more books available for you to buy in a digital form, and gain much more functionality, to run them on. The downside, of course, is that there will be a learning curve for gaining the necessary skills in using Logos. But Logos has a lot of (mostly) free tutorials and (sometimes) free courses that will help you with the changeover.

[olderTechnology]

It's been interesting to watch those Bible programs develop into ebook readers. My preferred app, Olive Tree, sells hundreds of non-bible ebooks. It's definitely a side gig to the main purpose of Bible study, but they do try to market themselves as an ebook reader for the Christian market. (FaithLife has done the same thing with stripped-down Logos readers of every description.)

The big plus is that these books are truly hyperlinked. Scripture references can call up the relevant passage, but also normal academic footnotes work a thousand times better than they do in Kindle and other formats. (Example: a hyperlink inside a footnote works fine. Try that in Kindle.)

The big minus, for some of us, is that the formats are TRULY proprietary. When I buy an ebook, I want to really own a copy, via Calibre. Not possible with these guys.

[Difflugia]

I just noticed this morning when I went to check about this week's free Wordsearch book.

If there is a Logos account for the same email address, your Wordsearch books were added to it. If there wasn't a new Logos account was automatically created for that email address. If you had Logos and Wordsearch accounts with different emails, Logos customer service will merge the two accounts if you ask them to.

Some books from Wordsearch aren't available in Logos and there's a list here showing the availability of every book in the Wordsearch catalog. A number of my books don't have a Logos counterpart, but I guess that's partly because I preferentially used Logos in the first place and usually bought books from Wordsearch that Logos didn't have.

At least for now, my Wordsearch software still syncs.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by olderTechnology

The big minus, for some of us, is that the formats are TRULY proprietary. When I buy an ebook, I want to really own a copy, via Calibre. Not possible with these guys.

Once upon a time, you could export a text from Logos, to ePub.

But that was also when there were tools that enabled one to convert, with some degree of fidelity, from Accordance, Logos, QuickVerse, Olive Tree, Laridian, e-Sword, and a couple of other formats, to plain text.