Kobo, the Canadian e-reader titan, has snapped up a little-known e-book platform called Shelfie and will incorporate its features into its apps. Shelfie was a service that sold digital copies of print books you already own at a discount before it shuttered in January. You had to take photos of your book shelves (hence, its name) to prove you own the titles you want to buy. The service's technology would then identify your books and make an inventory of everything you own by scanning their spines.

Unfortunately, the process might have been a bit too much for casual users, because Shelfie never really took off. When it shut down in January, Kobo stepped up and gave the smaller company's users the chance to transfer their libraries. Now that Kobo has completely taken over, it'll add Shelfie's capabilities to its Android and iOS apps.

It's still unclear if you'd have to go through the same process to score discounts. As The Digital Reader notes, though, Kobo's partnerships with brick-and-mortar bookstores could play a role in how the incorporated feature works. Kobo's apps might simply access your purchase data from its partners to conjure up the right recommendations. We'll know for sure once Shelfie's integration is done sometime in the next few months.

Source:
courtesy of ENGADGET

by Mariella Moon, @mariella_moon

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