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The metadata itself is not a moat. ISBN APIs allow for easy access to primary data attributes of a book.

The social data that Goodreads aggregates is definitely a moat, because it powers their SEO efforts further.

Which APIs? Worldcat, with decent data but paid licensing and lots of dirty data? Amazon’s, which they’ll shut down if you build a competitor? Try finding an API that gives you high-quality book cover images, too. And the ability to retain results.

kindle integration.

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