I recently figured out how LibraryThing handles “friends,” and it makes the site even cooler. LibraryThing doesn’t call friends “friends” (because maybe they’re not really your “friends”) and doesn’t make the list two-way (so you can follow someone’s library without letting everyone else know whose library you’re following).

Instead, LibraryThing uses a “watch list.” When you find someone whose library interests you, just add them to the list. You can then check back in and see how their library is growing.

The profile page of other users also lets you invite them to book groups, see which books you share, and leave comments. You can also subscribe to a user’s feeds, including recently-added books and reviews.

If you’ve jumped into LibraryThing, let me know. Here’s my profile … leave a comment or recommend a book.

UPDATE:

Tim Spalding, the founder of LibraryThing, left a comment on my LibraryThing profile asking if I liked the way LibraryThing handles contacts/friends/whatever. Apparently, there’s been some talk about the way LibraryThing handles this feature. Here’s my response. If you have strong thoughts, you should probably post them on LibraryThing’s site.

Hey Tim … you asked about whether I *liked* the watch list feature the way it is.

I like that I can follow other people’s libraries without letting everyone know … because books are kinda weird, right? If I like the reading choices of someone, I want to follow what they’re reading and see what they’re saying on the site, etc. I don’t necessarily want to start a “friendship” with them. If I want that, I can always leave them a comment.

On the other hand, it would be cool to let users decide which users on their watch list are “public” and which are “private” … with private as the default. That way, I could make the choice.

In my experience, the more control/choice you give users, the happier everyone will be.

Thanks for asking! And thanks for a great service.