This is probably the busiest week of the year for this site. BookScouter traffic has more than tripled since last year at this time. Last week I added an extra server to give the site some more capacity. I’m happy that all of the servers have been performing well, but the problem now is all of the websites whose prices this site is searching are also getting stressed. It is also their busiest time of the year as well and some of them aren’t handling the added volume as well as others.

That means that sometimes when BookScouter tries to look up prices on their sites, it goes really slowly. That in-turn causes prices to show up slower on BookScouter. I’ve tried to account for slow sites, and in general it does a good job, but I’m occasionally seeing issues where it still goes slow. I’m investigating those more closely to see if I can prevent these cases that are still getting through.

I’ve also been working on tweaking some server-related settings to try and optimize things as much as possible. I’m keeping a pretty close eye on things and continually trying to make sure that the site is performing well for everybody.

As always, please Contact us if you would like to let us know how how the site is working for you.

Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

I’ve just added a few more new features to the site. Users now have the ability to create an account at BookScouter.com and customize the list of vendors that are searched. This should make it so that you only see the vendors that you are actually interested in selling to. You can still click a link to view all of the vendors as well. If you are not logged in, then some of the most reliable sites are shown by default.

I’ve also fixed a few problems that people have let me know about. We Buy Textbooks recently changed their site, so prices weren’t being displayed and that has been corrected.

AbeBooks pricing hasn’t been showing recently because they had blocked my program from accessing their site. I was able to work around that by using TextbooksRus’s price which always matches to the penny. (In case you didn’t know, AbeBooks buyback program is run by TextbooksRus anyway). Their price now showing, but I still recommend that you use TextbooksRus directly and avoid the extra company in the middle.

Finally, I also fixed a problem where pricing from Powells Books sometimes wouldn’t show. I worked with them to get that resolved and it should be working well now.

Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

I’ve been working for a while on some significant changes to the website. The first thing you’ll notice is that the old template has been replaced with a much cleaner (and I think nicer looking) page. But the changes go much deeper than just a new template. I’ve completely reworked how most of the back-end systems work. The new design should allow for much greater flexibility and scalability. I’ll be able to add new websites quickly and I’ll have the ability to work on some new tools for higher-volume users.

The site should also load faster throughout. Every page should load quicker due to some HTML and CSS changes. I’ve also reconfigured some server settings to better take advantage of browser caching. The actual price comparison page should finish quicker as well. I’m using some different technology to make all of those lookups all happen simultaneously.

Additionally, I’ve made it so that only the most popular websites are listed by default. The full list of pricing is available with an extra click. That should make the initial pricing appear in around 5-7 seconds.

I’ve tried to work on some simple usability issues as well. For example, I’ve added a search box to the header so that you no longer have to go back to the home page to start a new search. Additionally, the cursor should be in that ISBN input box when the page loads, so you can start typing (or scanning) an ISBN immediately without having to click in the box.

And the final change that I’m exited to introduce is that historic pricing information is available. You can now see the book buyback pricing for any searches that the site has done since July 2007. I’ve been collecting that information since then, but never had a way for users to see it until now.

Please feel free to leave feedback about the new design or functionality by commenting on this post, by using the Contact Form or emailing me directly.

Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

I go through a fair amount of work to ensure that the vendor feedback system on BookScouter.com is accurate and comes from legitimate book sellers. For each submission, I go through a process to check several things that I have found indicative of problems.

Submissions may be rejected or deleted if I identify any of the following:

1. Vulgar or offensive language
2. Excessively poor grammar, punctuation, or spelling.
3. Comments not specifically regarding the vendor to which they were submitted
4. Comments not related to selling books
5. Any attempt from a vendor to try to promote themselves or to attack another vendor

Vendors in violation of number five risk having their site removed from BookScouter.com and may be publicly humiliated.

I was away from my computer for most of the morning and just saw all of the emails about the site being down.  After a quick investigation, I found that some of the database tables required to run the site were corrupted.  This was causing the home page to show up incorrectly, and the pricing page would show the book detail, but wouldn’t display any prices on it.

The problem has been fixed now.  I’m still trying to determine the cause, but it will likely just be ‘one of those things’ that computers sometimes do.  Thanks to everybody who sent me an email letting me know about the problem.