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Tag: Lendle

  • Amazon Reinstates Lendle’s API Access

    Oh what a rollercoaster ride for little ol’ Lendle. Yesterday we told you that Amazon had revoked the book-lending app’s API access, shutting the service down completely. This news came merely 6 weeks after the service took flight. It didn’t take long for Lendle to get up and running again, however, as Amazon has restored their API Access.

    @lendleapp
    Lendle    We’re back!

    http://t.co/AJRmXNe 17 hours ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

    Late last night, Lendle reports they received an email from an account specialist at Amazon. In his statement Monday, co-founder Jeff Croft lamented Amazon’s lack of clarity and Lendle’s lack of options for recourse; but this email detailed the specific issue Amazon had with the app. The culprit was the Book Sync tool, which synced a user’s Kindle library with his/her Lendle account. Amazon proposed a very simple proposition: remove Book Sync and you get your API access back. Lendle obliged, saying,

    We appreciate Amazon’s willingness to modify the position stated in the original access revocation email and work with us to get Lendle back on line. We have complied with the request to disable the Book Sync tool (which was a very useful, but non-essential, feature of Lendle).

    Furthermore:

    We’ve learned a lot through this process, and have come to realize we need to work towards a Lendle product that does not rely on APIs provided by Amazon or any other third party. To that end, we’ve already begun brainstorming the next version of Lendle. Suffice it to say, we’ll continue to make good on our promise to keep Lendle the easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle books.

    Translation – we’ll (hope to) not be needing you anymore, Amazon! It still seems to me, however, that Book Sync would benefit Amazon in the end. Oh well, don’t worry about it now…go read a book or something.

  • Amazon Shuts Down Lendle

    Amazon Shuts Down Lendle

    Have you had a chance to try Lendle yet?  If not, you may never get the chance.  Today Amazon revoked the application’s API access.  Lendle, a program that allowed Kindle users to lend books from their libraries to friends for a couple week period, was only in operation for around 6 weeks.

    If you go to the Lendle website, this is what you will see:

    Jeff Croft, co-founder of Lendle, wrote a statement explaining how they feel about Amazon’s decision.  From the statement:

    Earlier today, Amazon revoked our API access. Lendle relies heavily on Amazon’s API, so this effectively shut the site down. The letter we received from Amazon states that the reason our API and Amazon Associates accounts have been revoked is that Lendle does not “serve the principal purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site.”

    Croft disputes that last bit from Amazon, saying that Lendle’s philosophy is: “You can’t borrow if you don’t lend, and you can’t lend if you don’t buy.”  Lendle requires a user to be willing to lend from his own Kindle collection before they can borrow from a friend’s collection.  When users synced Lendle with their Kindle accounts, it made sure that lendable books purchased through Amazon were being traded.

    A win-win for all involved, right?

    At least that’s what Croft thought, as he explains in the statement.  He expresses shock, saying “I know many people at Amazon, and everything I’d heard was that most inside Amazon were big fans of Lendle-even up to higher-ranking managers.”

    As such, three options remain: Either Lendle gets its API access restored, they find a way to run the service without relying on Amazon’s APIs or the lending service is finished.  Croft doesn’t believe the latter is an option:

    “It may take us a bit of time to rebuild, but one way or another, we’ll continue lending eBooks.”

    Is this a bad business decision for Amazon, as lending apps promote book sales?  Tell us what you think.