How did you discover something you'd never heard of? Ever been dazzled by the endless selections of bookstores or online retailers? Millions of new books, movies and albums are released each year. There are likely dozens that suit you tastes perfectly, but you'll probably miss many of them. Best-seller lists let you know what's popular, but what about you'll like?

The creators of Douban think tips from friends and family are the most helpful way to discover new things. A friend wouldn't recommend a book on nursing to a bachelor; a family member wouldn't suggest a copy of "Naked Killer" to grandma. But even the collected knowledge of all of your friends and family is hopelessly limited. And oftentimes, people with highly similar tastes are strangers to each other.

If only there was a way to know the tastes of millions of people, so you could find others with similar preferences and discover new books, movies and music through them. It would be like the power of word-of-mouth amplified many times over. Douban was created to do just that. It doesn't target any one particular group of people. No matter how bizarre or commonplace your tastes, Douban can help you find like-minded people who share the same interests, and to discover more good stuff through them.

Douban was conceived in fall of 2004 by Bo Yang, a bilingual book worm, partly out of frustration that he could not find anyone in Beijing to talk about his new English books with. It was decided that a pilot version should be made in Chinese. Douban.com (alpha of course) went live on March 6, 2005, from a $800 home-made server hosted in the cheapest datacenter in Shanghai.

By December douban.com has attracted over sixty thousands registrations from Chinese speakers all over the world, over a million collections and ratings, and over 13,000 full-length reviews. The almost identical English version, douban.net, the one you're looking at, went on public testing on December 6, 2005.

Please email to webmaster(a)douban.net for the time being.