A new kind of online book retailer is in beta testing right now. Currently invite-only, BookRabbit.com is described as ‘a new “social shopping” website that aims to let users explore other members’ bookshelves online’ by the Bookseller.

A mash-up of Amazon and Facebook? Maybe. Users can take photos of their bookshelves and recognition-software will translate the information into an online catalogue and allow for communities to grow between users with similar shelves. It beats entering in your collection ISBN by ISBN and it does seem to present an interesting way to open up backlist…

You can request an invitation to test the beta version at bookrabbit.com