Digital Home Thoughts: Amazon Announces eBook Lending on Kindle, Catching up with Barnes & Noble's Nook

"One of the oldest customs of book lovers and libraries -- lending out favorite titles to friends and patrons -- is finally getting recognized in the electronic age, at least in one electronic book reader: Amazon has announced that it plans to allow users of its Kindle book reader to 'lend' electronic books to other Kindle users, based on the publisher's discretion. With this new feature, to be added to Kindle readers and software, 'you loan your Kindle books to other Kindle device or Kindle app users,' stated a blog item posted on Friday..."

If imitation is, indeed, the sincerest form of flattery, perhaps Barnes & Noble can feel good about Amazon's announcement that they plan to introduce an ebook lending feature for the Kindle later this year - presumably in time for the holiday shopping season. Barnes & Noble's Nook has made "LendMe Technology" available on their Nook since its introduction, and, based upon the brief announcement, the promised Kindle feature seems to be closely patterned after it: a 14 day lending period, during which time the lender loses access to the title. Additional details should be coming along soon, as the end of the year is not that far off. Does the ability to lend out ebooks make the Kindle more attractive than before? If you have been holding off on a purchase, is this the killer feature that will make you a buyer?