SFU Bookswap v2.0

I recently re-launched the SFU Bookswap website at a new address: http://sfubookswap.com. It is still reachable from the old address of http://books.sfu-rha.ca. The new address will provide fast, dedicated hosting which is a step up from the less than reliable system that was previously used.

The new version of the Bookswap website also sports some new features and improved functionality. The process for making an offer has changed slightly: now the seller of the book is immediately notified of offers via email, rather than when the posting expires. This is intended to provide sellers with up-to-date information on people interested in their postings so they can make informed decisions if they are considering selling their book via another means.

Since sellers are notified of offers immediately, it is less important for postings to expire in a timely matter. As a result, the restriction on the time before the posting expires has been removed. This way, sellers can choose to have high-value books expire quickly if they intend on selling them to the bookstore and have books which may take longer to sell persistent on the site.

The interface for selling a book has also been improved. The page has been divided into several steps with additional descriptions of all fields. This is an attempt to help new users navigate the process for the first time while, at the same time, not negatively impacting the speed of experienced users.

Perhaps the greatest change in the new version is the integration of the Google Books Database. Previously, when a user was adding a new book to the database, ISBNDB was queried for the book information and the cover image was searched in a separate step. Now Google Books is the data provider for both book information and cover information. This improves data integrity as there is a lower probability of a title / cover mismatches and, furthermore, the Google Books interface provides better searching over a variety of keyword types.

Check out the new site! Get some cash for your texts:
http://sfubookswap.com