Borders Books

jbcohen · 11-12-2010, 11:37 AM

Borders site frequently says powered by Kobo. What does thie mean? Does this indicate that the information that I see on individual novels on the site was drawn from Kobo Books? Does this imply that the Borders web site is simply a fancy front end placed on the Kobo Books site and renamed to read Borders? Does this imply that Kobo owns borders?

ATDrake · 11-12-2010, 12:24 PM

Option #2 is closest, though I wish the Borders site were nearly as functional as the Kobo site, limited though that one is, especially in the search area.

Borders licensed the backend workings of the Kobo catalogue (all downloads are supplied via the Kobo servers, and the Borders app is a rebranded version of the Kobo Desktop app), but were free to create their own website on top of it. Like the way library e-books are usually "powered by Overdrive" which processes things and handles the listings and checkout, but the libraries can put their own info and logo up and decide how the webpage displays.

This leads to some interesting things, such as when Borders had this promotion for free romance ebooks, whose titles promptly showed up in the Top 50 Bestsellers list for Kobo, even though the books were obviously not selling at such rates there. And you can sometimes find hidden Kobo freebies by checking the Borders time-limited promo page.

jbcohen · 11-12-2010, 01:41 PM

Aha so Kobo supplies the data and does all of thework while Borders is the face on the Kobo service. That explains it all, tanx so much.

taming · 11-12-2010, 03:48 PM

Do remember though that if you are using Borders for sync, stick with it. If you later buy a book from kobobooks and go to sync your reader with their desktop application, your Border books will go away. You can only sync with one of the Kobo related stores. Some folks get around this by loading books from one store as ePUB files through ADE or Calibre, and using sync for the store they normally buy from.

11-12-2010, 11:37 AM	#1
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Borders Books Borders site frequently says powered by Kobo. What does thie mean? Does this indicate that the information that I see on individual novels on the site was drawn from Kobo Books? Does this imply that the Borders web site is simply a fancy front end placed on the Kobo Books site and renamed to read Borders? Does this imply that Kobo owns borders?

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11-12-2010, 12:24 PM	#2
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Option #2 is closest, though I wish the Borders site were nearly as functional as the Kobo site, limited though that one is, especially in the search area. Borders licensed the backend workings of the Kobo catalogue (all downloads are supplied via the Kobo servers, and the Borders app is a rebranded version of the Kobo Desktop app), but were free to create their own website on top of it. Like the way library e-books are usually "powered by Overdrive" which processes things and handles the listings and checkout, but the libraries can put their own info and logo up and decide how the webpage displays. This leads to some interesting things, such as when Borders had this promotion for free romance ebooks, whose titles promptly showed up in the Top 50 Bestsellers list for Kobo, even though the books were obviously not selling at such rates there. And you can sometimes find hidden Kobo freebies by checking the Borders time-limited promo page.

11-12-2010, 01:41 PM	#3
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Aha so Kobo supplies the data and does all of thework while Borders is the face on the Kobo service. That explains it all, tanx so much.

11-12-2010, 03:48 PM	#4
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	Do remember though that if you are using Borders for sync, stick with it. If you later buy a book from kobobooks and go to sync your reader with their desktop application, your Border books will go away. You can only sync with one of the Kobo related stores. Some folks get around this by loading books from one store as ePUB files through ADE or Calibre, and using sync for the store they normally buy from.

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