Amazon cuts e-book sharer, Lendle

The application allowing Kindle users to share their books has been pulled, and even Lendle doesn't know why.

That was quick. After a mere two months, Amazon is already cutting its e-book sharing service Lendle. After users begged and pleaded for some feature allowing them to lend books, Amazon finally introduced a lending service. While it had some strings attached (you could only loan out a title for 14 days and could not be also reading it), it was something users pined for.
Lendle was an application that synced to a user’s Kindle account and kept a running list of books you’d completed reading that were available for lending purposes. You were able to browse the collective lists of Kindle users and send requests to borrow e-books, and vice versa.
The e-book share-aggregator posted to its Twitter early this morning that “Amazon has revoked Lendle’s API access. This is why the site is down. It’s sad and unfortunate that Amazon is shutting down Lending sites.” According to Lendle, Amazon determined to cut the program because it didn’t “serve the principle purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site.” Which sounds to us like Lendle was making it too easy for Kindle users to avoid buying e-books altogether, preferring to troll the Kindle community for new titles. And this is where all the aggravation with digital booksellers comes in: Just like you would in the actual store, you’re forking over money for a book. But when you buy via Kindle, you don’t actually own it or can do what you want with it.
Apparently, the small amount of control Lendle was giving Kindle users was too much for amazing. According to Lendle, Amazon sent the company its walking papers via a “no reply” e-mail address, and has failed to respond to questions from the company.
Lendle creator Jeff Croft recently insisted to the Wall Street Journal that his business did profit Amazon. “People are saying I borrowed a book and I bought it because I didn’t finish it,” he said. “That seems to be happening a lot.” Amazon’s lending service for e-books is still alive and kicking, but now users won’t have a digital library to ask for loans from.

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