Add a function of choosing a bookstore to your Internet Explorer.
Does every book related link point to the wrong bookstore in the wrong country or on the wrong continent? This simple Internet Explorer add-in lets you choose which bookstore you want to be linked to. There are no unwanted pop-ups, no advertising, and no spyware.
Discovers book plots and reviews (and sellers) in two easy clicks!
Works exactly as it's supposed to work!
Cons
Occasionally, maybe once out of twenty-five times Google (at least I assume that it's Google) will block the app and you have to resort to doing the booklink's work manually.
Summary
It's difficult for me to understand how this product could be made available free, for almost 7 years, and have only been found by 110 people!
I find this little tool invaluable to me! I spend a lot of time browsing and buying books online. When I'm browsing at a site such as Abebooks or Biblio or Alibris, which are huge gatherings of individual booksellers, these individual booksellers rarely include a synopsis of the plot in their offerings.. but most of them do provide an ISBN.
I like to have an idea of the plot before buying a book, even from a favorite author. There may be a number of reasons why I do or don't want to buy a particular book.. not the least of which is having read a gazillion books, as I approach my seventh decade) I may have already read this book, but forgotten the title or cover.
With the Albion BookLink all I have to do is right click the ISBN (every book has a different number..) and the normal help menu will pop-up BUT with the addition of a line that says BookLink. When I left click on that a window opens that let's me choose which major (world-wide) bookseller to use. In North America that would be for all practical purposes U.S.A. Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
and Powell's.. and at least two Canadian cos. I use Amazon.. not to buy the book necessarily, but to check the plot and because most of their books will have a minimum of two reviews-- from Publisher's Weekly and from Booklist. Plus reviews from people.. customers who have actually read the book, if I don't mind the inadvertent spoiler!
When I click the OK at the bottom of the window I am taken directly to the page at Amazon (or wherever) displaying this book and all it's particulars.
I can then purchase the book where I'm at or go back to where I was browsing that book with all I need to know about whether or not this is a book that I want to buy!
Google used to have this very app in their own bag of tricks, but then I believe they began exploring the book business themselves and did not care to send people to the competition. The app one day disappeared. And I searched and searched for a replacement and finally found the Albion BookLink. It may not be quite as pretty, but it works every bit as well!
I have had this simple tool for at least five years and it has always worked well.. it has never given me a bit of trouble!
Thank you Albion BookLink. You made browsing books a completely pleasant experience for me once again!<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Apr 16, 2012<p/>As of about the first of April 2012, when my old laptop self-destructed, I had to begin over with a WINDOWS 7 unit running an IE9 BROWSER. This is simply a note to say that the Albion BookLink WORKS JUST AS WELL here as it did with the old XP program and IE6 thru IE8.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Dec 11, 2015<p/>12/11/2015
Windows 10 will not allow me to re-download this wonderful APP.