We just added some major enhancements to the “Queue” page.  Members can now drag and drop titles around their queue.  Removing titles from the queue has also been updated to make it easier and faster (there’s even a nice “Undo” function).  Also, a “Search Q” function has been added to help members find a specific title or titles by specific authors in their queue.  The “Search Q” box uses the same convenience auto suggest feature for every title and author in the queue.

A few weeks ago we shipped our 2 millionth book to a member in Vancouver, WA.  You can check out our press release here for more details.

We just implemented a new “Auto Search Suggestions” to our paperback and audiobook sections.  I’m sure you’ve noticed a lot of sites lately have added this auto suggestions feature.   When you type something into the search box it will pull up a short list of suggestions that match what you type.  It will continuously refine the suggestions as you type.  It is very useful when searching for a titles or authors.  Keep in mind these are suggestions and not every single title on our site will come up as a suggestion as you type.  The suggestions are also just that, suggestions.  You can simply ignore them and type in whatever you want in the search box and do a search.

We recently added a “Preferences” section to member’s accounts that allows them to customizes some of the behavior of our site.  For more details, click the “Account” link at the top of any page.

The member RSS Feeds have been a great way to share with others that’s in your queue, currently checked out, and recent rental activity.  We just added a feed for your Favorite Authors list so you can share that also.  Check out the RSS Feeds page.  You must be signed in to see your personal RSS feeds.

We recently launched our new site, I am calling it our new site and not a new site design because it is far more then just a new look.  We have implemented a lot of new features in addition to making the site more user friendly.  This is the most comprehensive update to our site since we launched back in 2000.  We are also working on a host of new features we’ll be implementing soon so please keep the feedback coming.

Booksfree has made Inc Magazine’s “Inc 5000″ list of the fastest growing privately held companies in America.  Booksfree ranks 1,792 on the overall list and 72 on the top 100 retail companies.  Thanks to all our members for your support over the years and for making Booksfree a success.

We have added over 10,000 titles to the Paperback Book section of our site in the Young Adult and Non-Fiction categories.  Here is a breakdown of the categories and number added:

Young Adult,  1040 titles added
Philosophy,  974 titles added
Political,  1013 titles added
Psychology,  747 titles added
Travel,  2736 titles added

You will notice that we have added 4 new categories in addition to expanding out young adult category.  You will find these additional categories and their sub categories on the Browse page in the coming days.

Members will now notice a list of recommendations on the “Search Details” page of some books titled, “Members who rented this title also enjoyed:”  This is not your typical list of recommendations.  These titles are based not only on their popularity with other members, but their relationship with other titles those members have rented.

It works like this:  First it looks at which members rented a specific title (in this case, the Search Details page of the title you are currently on).  Second, it looks at all the other titles those members rented in the same genre.  Third, it looks at what those member rated those titles.  Finally, it weeds out any title you’ve rented, rated, reviewed, or currently have on your list.  The final result is a list of titles that were rented and highly rated (typically 4 to 5 starts) by other members who have also rented the title you are currently viewing the Search Details page of.

Now some members might ask, “Why don’t all the titles have these recommendations on them?”  The simple answer is, not every title has been rented by other members who have read and rated highly other titles in the same genre (like new releases).  Your “My Recommendations” section on our site simply recommends titles that were highly rated by other members in genres from which you have rented titles from.  The recommendations on the Search Details page look at who has rented a specific title in a specific genre, then, the other titles those members have read and rated highly in the same genre.

We recently added a new notification feature that will email members on the first of each month about new releases by their favorite authors. When a member adds an author to their Favorite Authors list, the system will trigger an email notice to that member whenever that author releases a new title that’s available to rent.

No more wondering when your favorite authors release a new title. We’ll send you an email and let you know.