Webware

Last week I took a look at TextBookFlix, an invite-only service that ships loaner text books at a sizable discount to cash-strapped college students. This week I've been browsing BookSwim, a similar service that's been around a little longer, and is open to everyone.

Look familiar? If you've used Netflix before, you've got the gist behind BookSwim.

(Credit: BookSwim.com)

BookSwim makes strong self-comparisons to Netflix, with its own books-by-mail turnaround service that lets you keep anywhere from 3 to 11 titles out at a time with five different subscription plans ranging from $20, all the way up to $36 per month. Like Netflix, BookSwim gives each user a queue of books, and will ship you more when you send them back. Instead of shipping books back one at a time, the service requires you to send several books back at a once depending on your plan.

To find new titles to put in your queue, there's a socialized browsing system that includes recommendations and reviews for each title that are written by users. There's also a top rentals listing, along with a "celebrity queue" run by a resident book head named Viral, who offers reading suggestions.

If you feel like keeping a title or purchasing it directly, BookSwim sells each of its titles through an Amazon.com affiliate store and a discounted purchase price you can pay through your account, similar to other rental services like Netflix, GamesnFlix, and GreenCine.

This service sounds absolutely fantastic for quick readers without a library or used bookstore nearby. Or if they're agoraphobic, yet addicted to new hardcovers and expensive manual-style books. Otherwise, you'd be better off picking up a handful of used books each month for about the same price.

If you dig expensive technology-related books like how-to guides and books from the 'Dummies' series you'll find them on BookSwim.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Update: Representatives from Netflix have let us know these lower-priced plans are part of a test for selected Netflix subscribers, and the current prices that were lowered last month remain for new and existing customers.

Netflix is cutting the price of two of its most popular plans by $1 today, less than a month after its last cut in July. The pricing hasn't been changed on Netflix's rates page, but the company has been sending out rounds of e-mails to its customers about the change since last night, and made an announcement about it earlier this morning. The change covers the two- and three-out-at-a-time plans, the latter of which is the most popular and competitively priced.

The move is the latest in a series of aggressive cuts to compete with Blockbuster's popular Total Access service, which exploits Blockbusters brick-and-mortar stores to provide on-the-spot rental exchanges for about the same price as Netflix's offerings. Netflix has since fought back with its video-on-demand Watch Now service, which competes with Amazon's Unbox, and Movielink, which Blockbuster snapped up last week for just under $7 million. Interestingly enough, with this morning's change, Netflix is also slicing an hour of Watch Now usage off each of the plans, cutting them down to 13 and 16 respectively.

The three-at-a-time plan is Netflix's most popular, and started out at a flat $19.99 in late 1999. Both Netflix and Blockbuster have since been fierce competitors, lowering prices and adding new features to their services, despite the increasing costs in gasoline and postage.

In the face of the juggernaut that is Netflix, lagging movie rental giant Blockbuster has tried many an incentive to convince viewers that it's no dinosaur. Since entering the online DVD rental business in 2004, Blockbuster has instituted "Total Access," a system of online-and-offline rentals geared toward Netflix users who may be disgruntled by the fact that they can't just hop in their cars and pick out movies on the fly.

This week, Blockbuster is taking a sharper jab at Netflix. With the President's Day long weekend underway, the rental company is attempting to capitalize on the fact that when there's a holiday, post offices are closed and Netflix shipping times are inevitably slowed down. So, Blockbuster is extending a "Presidents' Day Pardon" to Netflix members: Turn in the tear-off flap from a Netflix rental (you know, the one with your mailing address on it), take it to a Blockbuster store, and you get a free rental. Apparently, you can get an additional free rental for every address flap you turn in.

The catch: You'll need to sign up for a Blockbuster store membership. It's free, but it's still a membership, and plenty of people think those are just a tad icky. But if it doesn't bother you, you have through Feb. 21st to take advantage of this offer.

Just remember, late fees do apply.