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Your Value Prop Goes HereURL of Website or App Store Location Purpose of Site/App/Product/ServiceMonth/ Year FoundedFunding RoundsRevenue StreamsMonthly Traffic or App Downloads (note: Similarweb.com is used for websites)# of SKUs / Listings (estimate)Primary CategoriesSocial NetworksContent TypesPersonalization FeaturesCommunity/User Generated Content FeaturesCompetitive AdvantageRegionHeuristic EvaluationCustomer ReviewsGeneral NotesQuestions/Notes to TeamAnalysisSWOT Analysis from the Competitor's PerspectiveFor Profit or Nonprofit
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DIRECT COMPETITORShttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
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VitalSource's Bookshelfhttp://bookshelf.vitalsource.comBookshelf is an eBook reader in which one can experience flowable or fixed text for lifetime license to eBooks and a range of features including the ability to bookmark, highlight, and note. June, 1994VitalSource has three funding rounds. VitalSource creates revenue based on purchases users make. It also hosts some Elsevier books which are licensed by universities. It also has partnerships with publishers, provides custom content solutions, corporate and professional training solutions, digital learning tools and analytics that let universities, insititutions and coperations know about their scholars' engagements. Vitalsource.com has the followr: monthly visits: 16.02M and monthly unique visitors: 3.574M. The app has separate unspecified traffic.Bookshelf has over 2.3 million titles in e-text and courseware in 37 different languages.Online digital content platformLinkedIn (20K followers) | Facebook (6.2K likes, 6.3K followers) | Instagram (868 followers)eBooks and coursewareVitalSource's Bookshelf allows notes and highlighting plus, sometimes, flowable text, where one can alter the typeface for some eBooks. One can also view highlights and notes on the same page. On VitalSource's website There is a possiblity of redeeming courses from other sites or institutions according to inputed user codes. It is also possible to export different types of citations. Users can create an account.For instructors, it is possible to see most sampled textbooks. For scholars, publishers can recommend books. All users can contact support.Vital source allows text-to-speech capabilities in Bookshelf app and on the website. It is also easy to make notes and highlight text, plus also view highlighted text in group. Something that is interesting you are not seeing with other competitors is the text-to-speech component imbeded in the interface. Furthermore, most of the eBooks are reflowable (reformatable).Vital source is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.To be continued…"The app itself is laggy and loads very slowly….The amount of time wasted while waiting for it to load can let me finish my assignment few hours earlier….The search bar can't work as well. What do you mean 'this feature is unavailable at this time'?....I couldn't help but wonder the amount of money this app earns goes where. Is it not enough to improve it? I just started college and I feel like the next four years is going to be a nuisance whenever i need to access the textbooks. Please do better" (QQ et. al, 2022-2024).
"You guys are ridiculous, why am I verifying email for a book, who tf wants info to a book" (QQ et. al, 2022-2024).
"Wish I had never purchased the workbook through the website as it feels like everything takes twice as long" (QQ et. al, 2022-2024).		One is buying a license to each book from the publisher, which is rather expensive in comparison to if they were renting and saving their notes and highlights like is available through Libby App. The app does not sync to where you last read on different devices, and on the web there are some glitches concerning text-to-screen where the app reads the first sentence and stops. Images cannot always be zoomed in. Images, containing graphs and other data do not always have optical character recognition or ALT text. Images cannot always be zoomed in. VitalSource is not yet innovative in cost leadership, which creates avenues for a new business. Though it brings together some innovative features, customers appear to be dissatisfied with its price, service, and slowness. What one can take away from its UX strategy is definitely how it is cutting edge in the way it provides text-to-speech in its app and webpage. If one can emulate this, minus the website glitches, one may be a promising entity. VitalSource provides a much needed product: eBooks for an academic audience, albeit the pricing is not sustainable as it will make poor beggers out of students who compalain about the pricing and will spend an average of $1000 on the app in the course of getting everything from a BA to PhD. However, the tools provided, including the abilitiy for instructors to compare textbook samples and to be aware of the most popular texts for instructors as such is one of their game changing attributes. Text-to-speech is also a much sought after advantage that proves useful to persons who are blind as well as those inclined to audiovisual learning. With that said, users have complained of the slowness of the app, and there is currently a glitch that prevents one from using the web to do text-to-speech reading, which data-shy patrons may find unforgiveable. Nonethless, there is the capacity to take notes, highlight text in three colors, bookmark pages, and even return to bookmarked pages, highlights and notes. * S — Strengths: This app has benefits for both students and instructors alike. It allows instructors to compare textbook samples and to be aware of the most popular texts for instructors. It accommodates students with disabilities by allowing students to adjust font sizes, background, line height, margins, and horizontal or vertical scroll for reflowable books. Serving 50% of all college students in the United States, the app has 2.3M eBook titles, and serves 4,500 institutions in 37 languages. It also has the ‘coach me’ feature that allows you to quiz yourself on comprehension. Unlike Speechify, the app allows you to convert text to speech in AI voices from anywhere on the page. It also provides quizzes within the text, like Speechify, although, unlike Speechify, they are periodic and test comprehension section by section.
* W — Weaknesses: Not all texts are reflowable. The app does not contain articles, journals or audiobooks, leaving students to have to find other sources for these materials.
* O — Opportunities: The app could implement AI versions of celebrities’ voices to help engage college students. It could also incorporate different types of materials (such as articles, journals and audiobooks). Finally, it would improve accessibility if the prices of books were reduced, and/or if a subscription model was provided.
* T — Threats: The economy might affect the ability of the American and global public to invest in books, which might lead them to divest from VitalSource.

For profit
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ITHAKA's Jstorwww.jstor.org/Jstor is an e-journal and eBook reader website for access to e-journals and licensed eBooks using connected libraries like local public libraries and university libraries. It also allows the public in the form of users with Google accounts to read online up to 100 articles a month. January, 1994ITHAKA has two funding rounds.The local and university libraries pay for subscriptions. When not accessed through a local or university library, Jstor is subscription based for individuals. They also gather renevue from grants and philantropic support, publisher partnerships.Monthly visits: 16.98M
Monthly Unique Visitors: 7.557M		 Jstor has 132,000+ eBooks and 12 million journal articles.DatabaseLinkedin (20K followers) Facebook (228K likes, 227K followers) | Instagram 25K followerseBooks, e-journals, and images Allows patrons, including university library members, public library memebers and Gmail users, to save and organize their saved files into folders. Users can export citations and share links of articles or images. Although there is an ability to save an article or image, there is no posibility of highlighting or note-taking within the app. Nonetheless, all contained e-texts have optical character recognition (OCR*) enabled through highlightable text with the capsity to copy and paste in all modes except preview (JSTOR: Why images? (n.d.)). Users can login through Gmail, their public library or univerity account.Through Jstor Forum, users can upload, organize, and access their intitution's resources privately or publicly. Users can contact support for making changes to the app or troubleshooting. OCR recognition is available for most of their text with 97% accuracy (JSTOR: Why images? (n.d.)). Available to the public through Gmail.Jstor is headquartered in New York, New York, U.S.A."I have no complaints. They are the best at making old suff accessible, in my experience"(Molobodd et. al, 2022-2024). "For someone like me who doesn't have access to good libraries or anything of that sort, JSTOR basically made sure I passed in my 3-year literature degree. Plus, it basically sponsored and saved my dissertation" (Molobodd et. al, 2022-2024). "I'm here after searching for why they are trying to charge me $57 for a 4 page PDF of an article from May 2020. What I don't understand is why they have been allowed to get away with this" (Molobodd et. al, 2022-2024).
"JSTOR is evil because the image quality of the journals they have is many times useless, and the website is a pain in the ass to navigate. Elsevier, SpringerLink, etc...much easier to navigate and find what you need! (Squidboots et. al, 2008). "JSTOR must die. They're worse than useless. And evil"(Squidboots et. al, 2008). "Go to Google Scholar and you'll find most of the search results locked up in websites pretending $30 to allow the lecture of 10-page papers. JSTOR is even worse: unless you are a university or library, you cannot talk to them. They don't offer access to lowly humans" (Squidboots et. al, 2008)		With Jstor, there is the possibility for Gmail users to access so many journals and books for free through their email signup. Nonetheless, these users are not able to do highlighting and notetaking within the website. If they were patrons of the public or university libraries they can download and highlight and save but these highlights are not maintained on Jstor's website.Usability or user-friendliness is important to users so is optical character recognition (OCR–the ability of a text to be highlighted for copying and pasting or finding definitions). Saving articles is perhaps not more important than being able to highlight and take notes and bookmark. Having articles synced to where one last read on their account will be an innovative solution to future problems of distractability of the internet. Perhaps these features cannot easily be available on the web (or perhaps Jstor lacks funds), when not associated with an app. Jstor excells as a nonprofit endeavour. It is the go-to website that even people enrolled in poorer schools, the community, and autodiadacs alike can find when all fruitful knowledge seems hidden behind paywalls. The only thing lacking is the ability to make notes, highlight, bookmark and sync where last read with other devises. Nonetheless, what JSTOR excells at in comaprison to it's competitors is optical character recognition, which allows users to right click a word or sentence, and opens up possibilites to all sorts of operating system features like looking up definitions or speaking text through system fuctions. However these fuctions like text-to-speech that are only provided with renewal for each page by the system may impede flow. Nevertheless, OCR also makes searching more precises. One can also do things like save and group articles into folders within their JSTOR account. Moreover, the best news yet is the ability to access up to 100 articles a month with Gmail–without being able to download–but nonetheless promising. The problem is the community's lack of knowldege about Gmail access, as the user reviews expose (Molobodd et. al, 2022-2024).* S — Strengths: Jstor allows you to generate citations for text, which might make the research process simpler. It also allows you to save and download text. You can request accessible PDFs when you download. 97% of the documents also have optical character recognition. JSTOR has an AI tool you can chat with when you have questions.
* W — Weaknesses: It does not allow users to note-take or highlight. There are also no text-to-speech capabilities.
* O — Opportunities: It could benefit from some kind of AI podcasting that will allow users to grasp the content. There should be an AI quiz that will allow users to test their knowledge as they go along.
* T — Threats: Since this is a non-profit, the business might go out of business if they are unable to raise funds to cover the cost of maintaining their growing database. Also, because it is a non-profit, they may not be able to afford to innovate as much as other for-profit companies.
Nonprofit
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Clarivate's ProQuest/ProQuest eBookwww.proquest.com | https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/ebooks-main/ProQuest is an e-journal and eBook reader website for access to e-journals and licensed eBooks using connected university libraries.1938 | March, 2016ProQuest has one funding round.Proquest gathers revenue from licencing fees to insitutions and libraries, training of librarians, sale of journals, eBooks and archival materials, as well as digital solutions and software. Proquest.com has: monthly visits: 109,375
monthly unique visitors: 55,274		ProQuest contains 450,000 eBooks and up to 6million digital pages of articles.DatabaseLinkedIn (34K) Facebook (23K likes, 23K followers) Instagram (1322)eBooks and e-journalsProQuest sometimes allows patrons to copy text, add a notes, share a link, download a chapter, download article as PDF, highlight and bookmark. Users can view highlights on a separate page. Users can login through their institution account.Users can create their own profile and contact support to make changes to the app or troubleshoot.The capacity to download a chapter is the most promising feature that not many offer. Nonetheless number of pages downloadable is sometimes limited. ProQuest is headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A."Neither "make excessively large revenue and profits" nor "make content difficult and expensive to access" are defining characteristics of a disreputable publisher" (User10885 et. al, 2015).Although ProQuest's allows access to it's public documents, it's database is mostly available through university libraries. It is also not possible to sync where you are on the text with your other devices. There is no contained text-speech capability, which can affect flow. It also does not have optical character recognition (OCR) on all articlesThe limitation of the number of printable pages is a flaw that this for profit business creates an avenue for "up and coming" businesses, who can beat their competition with cost leadership and differentiation of product.Proquest is an auspicious entity that allows patrons, who are owners of university accounts or individual subscibers, to view, save, highlight, note-take, view all highlights on the same screen and even at times download limited amounts of text from the 6million pages of journals and 450,000 eBooks they offer. Presumably, after download one can print the text if one is not an avid eBook reader and prefers a more tactile physcial interaction, while potentially less sustainable option (Moore, 2023). Nonetheless, not all articles have optical character recognition (OCR). Therefore, you may not be able to copy text you cannot highlight.* S — Strengths: Allows patrons to download a number of pages, print, cite, highlight, take notes, zoom in and out, and quote from the text.
* W — Weaknesses: The numerous icons may increase cognitive load. The search results on Proquest bring up irrelevant information. A search for The Waste Land brings up public health textbooks. There is no central place to view all notes. Notes only save to particular pages. A number of texts do not have optical character recognition so you can’t highlight or look up definitions. It is also not possible to search through some books because optical character resolution is not configured. It also does not have text-to-speech capabilities.
* O — Opportunities: Proquest could opt for optical character recognition for all their texts so that patrons can highlight, copy and look up the meaning of words more easily. It should have text-to-speech capabilities to appeal to a greater audience.
* T — Threats: Other competitors might get an upper hand since the search results are not reliable and people can only get the appropriate search results from their university library databases that do not single out Proquest as an option.
For profit
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EBSCO Industries | EBSCO Information Services | EBSCOhost | EBSCOhost eBook Academic Collection | Ebsco Mobile App https://www.ebsco.com/ | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ebsco-mobile/id1473281170EBSCO Information Services that encompasses Ebscohost, Ebscohost eBook Academic Collection and Ebsco Mobile App provides website based solutions for reading academic e-journals and licensed eBooks. Ebsco Industries was founded in 1944 | Ebsco Information Services was founded in1984 | Ebscohost eBook and Academic Collection was found in March, 2012 | Ebsco Mobile App was launched in April 2019.EBSCO Industries has 540 funding rounds. | EBSCO Information Services has one funding round.Ebsco's sales team, which includes librarians, helps Ebsco solicit its databases, journals, magazines, and eBooks to insitutions, organizations, and libraries for subscription. It also gathers revenue from inividuals who purchase journal articles. Additionally, Ebsco sells custom data and research services as well as consulting and training services. Ebsco.com has: monthly visits: 13.76M
monthly unique visitors: 6.435M		EBSCO contains indexing of 3,100 journals, and 8,500 journal abstracts. EBSCOhost eBook Academic Collection contains 2.4+ million e-books, 450,000 which are Digital Rights Management (restrictions to use and modifications) free.DatabaseLinkedIn (9K) Facebook (1.3K) Instagram (1016)LinkedIn (58K) Facebook (17K) Instagram (2977)eBooks and e-journalsUsers can access HTML or PDF versions of the text. They can export a book or article, create a link, save as TXT or HTML or PDF if available through their browser, generate a citation, email, print, add to a folder, and create a note. Users can login through their institution account. Users can utilize forums, share citations, articles, and create folders for collaboration. They can also save searches, generate emailed alerts on similar articles and journals in their fields. Usage statistics and analytics are also generated by user usage that insitutions have access to. Ebscohost has some unique features, such as the possiblity to export a book or article as a TXT, HTML and possibly PDF file, create a link, save, email, print, and add to a folder, which are together unique attribute. The app also makes possible, text-to-speech which is unique. EBSCO Industries is headquartered in Birmingham, AL, U.S.A. EBSCO Information Services is headquartered in Ipswich, MA"[M]y teacher highly recommends Ebscohost. I hate this search engine, I can never find any useful information. It's extremely frustrating to use. I've spent three days looking for sources on this damn search engine but haven't found anything worthwhile. I've tried every combination of search words I could think of and not even basic information shows up. Or when I find something that may actually be useful my schools library doesn't have access to it" (wamersafoot et. al, 2020).
'Ebsco is actually a really useful source, but you have to know how to use it effectively" (Wamersafoot et. al, 2020).
"i love ebscohost tbh...make sure to set it to only search relevant files" (Wamersafoot et. al, 2020).
"EBSCO admittedly sucks and I was just using it last night. It feels like majority of the content that you FO need is unaccessible, and all the junk you can access but don't need too. Or five versions of the same article across four outlets. Just not helpful" (Wamersafoot et. al, 2020).		Although Ebscohost allows you to read books, it does not allow syncing. And although the Ebsco Mobile App allows you to read text-to-speech, this is not allowed internally on the web.A more progressive app will allow text-to-speech in both the app and the website.Mixed reviews for Ebsco Information Services reveal how it is well liked by users who are familiar with the database. New users find themselves lost without being able to find the kinds of resources they need in the entire database since it hosts some journals and abstracts of works of which it does not have the full text, which can be confusing. Nonetheless, it provides a host of features, including the ability to export a book or article, create a link, save as a txt or html file, generate a citation, email, print, add to a folder, or create a note. Although these are a comprehensive list of personalization features, the ability to highlight text along the way is missing, and the text-to-speech capability is available on the mobile app but not on the web. This could be distracting. Furthermore, the app does not allow one to sync to where one last read. These issues highlight that, although EBSCO is a competitor, it has not refined its UX strategy enough to satisfy a majority of users. * S — Strengths: It has text-to-speech capabilities. You can even download the mp3 of the text-to-speech. You can access the full text as a PDF, HTML. It has an automated citation option where you can view the citation of the articles you select. Ebsco Mobile has accessibility support for content remediation that takes 3-5 days to respond. The website allows you to save a text, create a note, print, email, and add to a folder.
* W — Weaknesses: On one of the settings, when you use the text-to-speech capabilities, you cannot view the text at the same time. Therefore, you cannot read along in that section while using text-to-speech capabilities. For the other section, when you select full text, you can view text-to-speech, but most patrons may not know that. It is also possible to play the text at the same time in this other full text version and view the text but it does not highlight where the text is reading. It does not allow you to highlight and take notes.
* O — Opportunities: The text should highlight which section is being read as you read along.
* T — Threats: The American and world economy might influence individuals’ ability to purchase journal articles from Ebsco making them short of revenue (that allows them to access more articles) and risk going out of business.
For profit
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Elsevier I Science Directhttps://www.elsevier.com | https://evolve.elsevier.com/cs/Elsevier provides website access to academic e-journal mostly focused on the scienctific, medical and technical and Evolve provides app based licensed eBook access to healthcare scholars.1880 | Evolve was registered as a trade mark in in December 2003Elsevier has one funding round.Elsevier creates revenue from university subscriptions and patrons who buy titles as corporate or academic/personal. It generates revenue from publishing services, advertising and sponsoring sevices, conferences, and events.Science Direct: Monthly visits: 44.39M
Monthly Unique Visitors: 14.81M		Elsevier has 2,800 journals, 40,000 e-books, and other eBook format titles.DatabaseLinkedIn (675K) Facebook (326K) Instagram (30K for main page with multiple pages for regions)e-journals website and eBook appFrom the Elsevier website, users can toggle beween headings that are listed as hyperlinks, save searches, create alerts, share articles, cite, add to Mendeley (a tool for managing references and highlighitng PDFs), and get personalized recommendations. Researchers can also make personalized profiles on the Elsevier. It is also possible on the Elsevier to copy texts and paste elsewhere and look up words because the text have OCR. Users can login through their institution account.It is possible to connect to Mendeley (a tool for managing references and highlighitng PDFs), where one can have more options when it comes to manpulating text. There is also a possibility for users to generate content with permission after sumission on Elsevier Connect, a place where users can find blogs in relation to news and research.Elsevier has made a name for itself by getting involved in the organizing and hosting conferences in their name. The articles are cognizant of the distractablity of screen and the need to be able to focus in their use of citations that provide hyperlinking. Elsevier has a spendidly concsious-of-design-principles layout especially on laptops and computers. It also creates a place for its users to read more and perhaps publish about news and research through Elsevier Connect.Elsevier is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands."The core issue is that they have been lobbying and pushing against open access. In my opinion, they have done so with both direct and indirect means."….[They] overly engaged in an overzealous campaign to keep everything behind their paywall (Kmlevitt et. al, 2022).
"Elsevier can keep their record profits and exploitation even if everything was OA because they'll just charge even more outrageous sums on the front end" (Kmlevitt et. al, 2022).
"I have no love for Elsevier," (Kmlevitt et. al, 2022).		Evolve is only available for healthcare students through course ID or access code. Elsevier only publishes mainly technical articles in science and medicine.The ability to append citations and PDFs to Mendeley is a good resource. It would be nice if users can have such capabilities within a website or app for e-journals and eBooks. Additionally, not all scholars use Mendeley (a tool for managing references and highlighitng PDFs), and not all eBook and e-journal website databases connect to reference management system.Elsevier observes an attentiveness to design principles and elements in the general layout of the page. One can see labeled sections of the screen to the left on most laptops and computers. Nonetheless, it would help if you can actually highlight and append notes to the journal articles you read within your account on the website. So also, despite being ahead of the game by hyperlinking citations and making it possible to program other citations into a uniform style, there are some noteably uncomely features embedded in Elsevier's platform. For instance, in hyperlinking citations, just because one clicks on some link does not mean you do not want to immediately return where you were last. Nonetheless, optical character recognition (OCR) is what Elsevier does best.* S — Strengths: Science Direct has an AI assistant that allows you to summarize the article and experiment. It allows you to download the information for citations, but it is not formatted into popular style guides’ format. You can share and download the text. There is a table of contents. Only features science-based articles and books.
* W — Weaknesses: For Elsevier Evolve and Ebooks+ you have to purchase the book for it to be loaded on the app, if it does not come with a university subscription. Evolve is geared towards healthcare students only. Not all the content may be owned by your library on Science Direct. Some libraries require you to use their VPN to use Science Direct. It does not allow you to highlight and add notes to the text.
* O — Opportunities: It could be possible to highlight and take notes on Science Direct. An AI assistant could generate quizzes and summarize particular sections of the text. They could also create a chat feature with AI.
* T — Threats: Students might go elsewhere when they notice that Elsevier only caters to patrons who are science or healthcare students and researchers.
For profit
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Taylor and Francishttps://www.taylorfrancis.com/Taylor and Francis provides website based solutions for reading academic e-journals and licensed eBooks.1852Taylor and Francis has two funding rounds.Taylor and Francis acquires revenue from insitutional subscriptions and patrons who order journals or articles within journals.Monthly visits: 5.193M
Monthly Unique Visitors: 2.798M		Taylor and Francis has 145,000 eBooks and 2,700 journals.DatabaseLinkedIn (198K) Facebook (48K) Instagram (6,173)eBooks and e-journals websiteTaylor and Francis allows you to listen, define, and translate, view PDF or EPUB and print PDF. Articles have optical character recognition. One can also download the MP3 of each hosted article. Users can login through their institution account.It is possible to see who else cited the selected available article and other articles people also read. Users can also submit ideas for possible journals. It is possible to see the performance of a journal through journal metrics according to user interactions. Each journal has a page with journal metrics, which authors can guage whether a journal is worth submission. Articles are organized in a manner that pays attention to design principles like contrast, repition and unity, with tabs for each section on the left and hyperlinks to the references. It is also possible to listen to each article along with the possibility of downloading the MP3, although this feature is sometimes glitchy or malfunctioning, especially on the cellphone due to not enough memory.Taylor & Francis is headquartered in Milton Park, Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire United Kingdom."Super scammy: I bought an ebook from Taylor and Francis almost one year ago, and today have been dealing with an aggressive person from Informa asking me to pay for the ebook a second time as they said the payment (that I paid, last November) " ( Hazeley et. al, 2023).

"I am a PhD student, in my last year, and I paid online for a 48 hour access of an important paper that I need to reference. The money was taken from my account but I am still waiting for access 24 hours later. I have emailed the company twice and messaged them via Twitter but nothing! Not impressed! Not only is this an inconvenience but it has been a valuable waste of research time trying to find this paper elsewhere. Disappointing and unprofessional" ( Hazeley, et. al., 2023).
"Excelent company to write for" ( Hazeley et. al, 2023).		Taylor and Francis is the only other app besides VitalSources Bookshelf that allows text-to-speech reading of articles, and downloading of MP3 of the article.It is important that if a service such as text-to-speech is provided, it works without glitches, or some users may be lost.Taylor and Francis is a trail blazer in the industry that makes available features like text-to-screen with the capacity to download MP3. This shows that they are creating avenues for diverse readers, while conscious of different learner styles such as audiovisual learners. The only problem is that the features do not always work on the computer and laptop. It also fails on the cellphone when the phone does not have enough memory to engage such activity. Nonetheless, what they cannot defeat in innovation they make up for in their visual display, which is concious of design principles like contrast, repetition, and unity. With that said, users have complained about a slowness in delivery of ariticles provided ater 48 hours that hindered their academic progress (Hazeley, et. al, 2023).* S — Strengths: Allows you to view the full article and download it as a PDF or EPUB. It has a table of contents section, recommends articles, and lets you know what patrons read. There is a metrics page that lets you know the demographics and information about people visiting the articles page and where they come from over the course of time. It has text-to-speech and the ability to download the MP3 of the text-to-speech.
* W — Weaknesses: The mobile website is not functional. It does not create citation formatting for you. Articles are sometimes delivered after 48 hours.
* O — Opportunities: They could fix the mobile website to be able to get patronship for users who do not have computers. There should be the possibility of AI conversations, summaries, quizzes and podcasts.
* T — Threats: Another patron who can have a functioning app, cheaper articles and all features will probably put this sleeping giant out of business.
For profit
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Google Scholarhttps://scholar.google.comGoogle scholar allows patrons to research books across databases, while keeping track of how often it's cited, related articles, versions, while the capability of sorting according to year published and looking at author's profiles.2004No funding roundsNo revenueMonthly visits 122.1M
Monthly Unique Visitors 30.91M		160 million as of 2014LinkedIn (441) Facebook (None) Instagram (None)Access to other databases and Google Books listingsAllows users to create profiles of their workGoogle Scholar is headquatered along with Google in Mountainview, CA. https://youtu.be/jmYVDWMrtwI?si=4lh-Z2xBhr1qPomAGoogle Scholar has a opportunity to beat the competition by allowing users to both organize, collate, listen to, download, highlight and note take. It would be even more innovative if it incorporated AI tools that allowed users to summerize a text, create a podcast, and quiz themseleves. * S — Strengths: Allows you to search a plethora of databases and find the best resources on the web, including tapping into the GoogleBooks database. Also allows you to sort according to year, include or exclude patents, see who else cited the text, related articles, and versions. It gives authors profiles where all their publications are listed.
* W — Weaknesses: It mixes peer review with non-peered reviewed text (Aurora University, n.d.). Does not allow you to narrow down your search (Aurora University, n.d.). Does not allow you to read directly from the page. Does not allow text-to-speech, highlighting, or citation generation. It does not allow you to save articles. Does not work with VPNs.
* O — Opportunities: Google Scholar could be an app that allows users to research, organize, and collate their research.
* T — Threats: Another database that allows both searching and reading from the app could overtake Google Scholar since users will be able to find what they need in one app.
For Profit
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INDIRECT COMPETITORS
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Speech Central Mobile App and Computer Apphttps://speechcentral.netSpeech Central is an app based solution to text-to-speech reading, notetaking and highlighting.February, 2014Speech Central is unfunded.Users pay to about $7.99 (for cellphone) to $12 (for computer) to access text-to-speech reading for unlimited articles.Speech Central has: monthly visits: 33,198 and
monthly unique visitors: 14,445 on the website. The website is separate from the app.		Speech Central has unlimited user gerated titles.Text-to-speech appLinkedIn (None) Facebook (84) Instagram (None– Username is taken)Ebooks, e-journals, PDFs, and websites conversion and text and audio downloadables.There is no associated account unique to the app. On Speech Central is possible to edit the uploaded text, copy and paste text, share text from a website, bookmark a paragraph, and add notes. Speech Central is unique in how all documents expored can be read via text-to-speech. It allows one to snyc across devices. Users can save data on mobile through Apple iCloud or Google account. The computer app saves information to harddrive/ cloud/Apple iCloud.Users are able to add tittles to their dashboard from PDF's saved on their computers, copied and pasted texts, or text copied from websites. For less than $10 in 2024, for the app, readers can turn virtually any text, PDF, or website into text-to-speech content, while affording the capacity to convert and save the document as a word document or audiobook. It is possible to edit the text, bookmark a paragraph and add notes. Users who do not choose to subscribe can use two PDFs a week. Speech Central is headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia."I am grateful for your work and the existence of your application." (Labsii et. al, 2024).Speech Central is completely free for persons who are blind. Therefore it is more socially conscious than the rest of the apps when it comes to persons who are disabled.Speech Central is another business worth paying attention to since it makes possible almost all website TXT, PDF, and DOCX files and copied and pasted text readable. Nonetheless, one can make headway in the industry by simply learning from Speech Central's mistakes, for example, making possible the highlighting of individual sentences as opposed to whole paragraphs. What makes Speech Central so cutting edge is its cost leadership and the differentiation it creates by the possibility of users transforming an unlimited number of texts into text-to-speech or audio files or even just converting such files into alternate formats. It absorbs copied and pasted texts, PDFs, .docx files, and websites, to name a few. The app also allows one to highlight, bookmark, and when reading text-to-speech have the text being read highlighted. The only problem is that, when hightlighting, it is only possible to highlight a paragraph at a time, as opposed to actual separate sentences. Therefore, one could lose the reason why one highlighted a paragraph. Nonetheless, the business model of Speech Central works for social good as well since it not only provides easy absorption of content by people who may be blind or visually impaired or persons who have different learning styles, such as audiovisual learners, but it also provides such capacities to persons who are blind or visually impaired free of charge. * S — Strengths: Allows highlighting, text to speech, reading from a selected location, looking at the original text, uploading your own files, and syncing across devices. It provides ADHD- and dyslexia-friendly interfaces.
* W — Weaknesses: Does not contain a database that you can use to search for articles, there is no table of contents, you cannot generate APA or MLA citations.
* O — Opportunities: A table of contents should be possible, so should looking for articles across databases and generating citations. There should be the possibility of chatting with an AI, creating a podcast out of contents and quizzing yourself on comprehension.
* T — Threats: Patrons who might want to search for articles in the same place may go elsewhere. Users might pirate materials and use them on the platform leading to possible lawsuits.
Unknown
12
Overdrive's Libby Apphttps://libbyapp.com/Libby provides app based access to connected library databases of licensed eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines.June, 2017Overdrive has one funding round.Libraries pay for licenses to books which Libby hosts.Libbyapp.com has: Monthly visits: 7.934M and monthly unique visitors: 2.289M for the website. The app is separate from the website. Overdrive has one billion titles.Online host of subscribable digital contentLinkedIn (18K) Facebook (50K) Instagram (13.4K) } LinkedIn (Unclaimed) Facebook (Unclaimed) Instagram (59K) eBooks, magazines, audiobook Users can join through their library account. Users can add tags, highlights, define words, search the internet for particular phrases or sentences, and search the book for reoccurring text, while also adding books they intend to borrow to their wishlists etc. It allows one to snyc across devices. Users are able to rate titles and put titles on hold.Libby App provides cutting edge reflowable (reformatable) eBooks and audiobooks, and magazines to library patrons free of charge through their local library's subscription.Overdrive is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, United States."There's only one thing easier than visiting the library: bringing it to you. Meet Libby, an app that lets you log into your local library to access eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines, all for the reasonable price of free. Sign in, link your library card, and go-it's that simple" (Overdrive Inc., 2016)Libby does not allow note-taking or copy and paste, nor generation of citations nor text-to-speech capability. It also fails by having several reoccurring glitches that add all the books you read to separate wish lists.If, like Jstor and Libby App, one can create a platform that is available to public libraries, one can be successful in the industry. The only thing missing from these apps is the option for text-to-speech.Libby App is the best thing that happened to a local public library. Through Overdrive's model, it distributes licensed books to libraries by granting them lending rights so that they, in turn, can provide access on a limited basis to patrons, who can use their platform to borrow all sorts of reflowable (reformatable) eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines. These titles include the more recent releases, yet there are few academic textbooks and no e-journals. The Libby App platform is very sophisticated by providing readers the ability through their system dictionary to "Look Up" or Google words or phrases, translate, search within the book and highlight. The only things one cannot do is, like all other platforms except the Ebsco App, Speech Central, VitalSource and the Internet Archive, text-to-speech and unlike Amazon Kindle, store notes on a device. One is also unable, unlike most other platforms, to copy and paste text, which could prove to be problematic when trying to cite passages. * S — Strengths: Allows patrons who have certain public library privileges to download and listen to ebooks and audiobooks, bookmark, highlight, search the text, lookup a word, view the table of contents, change the font, increase text scale, and adjust the background.
* W — Weaknesses: The app does not have text-to-speech capabilities. The app does not allow you to generate formatted citations. The app is limited to library holdings. The app does not allow users to upload files. The app does not have an AI component that users can chat with to generate podcasts and quizzes.
* O — Opportunities: Libby could allow users to take notes and view highlights and notes on a separate screen. Libby could also allow users to generate citations in MLA and APA. AI could be incorporated to allow for the creation of quizzes, podcasts, and conversations.
* T — Threats: An app that can host journals and many more e-text may come along and put Libby out of use leading libraries to divest.
For profit
13
Amazon Kindle Store/App | Audible https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amazon-kindle/id302584613 | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.kindle&pcampaignid=web_shareAmazon Kindle Store provide access to licensed/purchased eBooks (Kindle) as well as connected library databases which the libraries have lending rights of eBooks. Audible provides licensed/purchased audiobooks and podcasts in app format.June, 1995Amazon has five funding rounds.Users pay to access licensed Kindle eBooks audible Audiobook. They both have a subscription service.Amazon has: monthly visits: 2.438B and monthly unique visitors: 478.8M. This number is deceptive as not all the people coming to amazon.com are coming to the Kindle Store. Kindle is #1 in the app store in the category of Books. Audible has 25.75M per month to the website. The number of visits to the apps for both Kindle and Audible are unknown.Amazon Books has 32.8 million titles | Audible has 200,000 audio content. Online eBook store and app | Online audiobook store and appLinkedIn (13K) Facebook (3.5M) Instagram (395K) | LinkedIn (111K) Facebook (6.3M) Instagram (1.5M)eBooks app | audiobooks Users can create an account that works for both Kindle and Audible. Amazon kindle makes highlighting, note-taking, bookmarking, searching and sharing possible as well ass adding one's own documents to be reformatted/ or not reformatted. Audible allows subscribed users to select one audiobook a month while the possibilities of reqinding and fastfowarding at minute increments or even the possibility to navigate through chapters at a time. One can also boookmark through Audible. Users can save data on through Apple iCloud, Google account or harddrive.Amazon Kindle allows patrons to self-publish eBooks to Kindle Store, rate selections, and provide reviews. The ability to find items highlighted by other users is a popular feature for Amazon Kindle as well. Audible sometimes hosts authors as guests to Q&A that are available on their website with credit or for a fee, users can earn batches for how requenyly they listen to Audible, it is possible to share titles on audibleOne can add your own documents to Kindle in various formats such as PDF, .TXT, .RTF, and .EPUB, .DOC. .DOCX, and Image files (.JPG, .JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, and.BMP.). Highlighting, note-taking, searching and sharing, are possible. It is also possible see most commonly highlighted text while you are reading a book from their database. After reading, one can upload notes and highlights to Goodreads.com, a sister website.Amazon Kindle is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. Audible is headquarted in Newark, NJ, U.S.A. Kindle: "I think Amazon’s Kindle is the best invention since baked bread" (Dilger, 2024). Audible: "I got offered a trial subscription at the Amazon store by Central Park NYC and it has turned out to be a great investment... At least with Audible I can get caught up on subjects of interest while on the move" (Jostaman, & C, G. (n.d.). Audible: I feel like this was really deceiving. I went to an amazon bookstore about a month ago and when I was checking out, I was told I had a free audiobook. All I had to do was supply my email address connected to my amazon prime account...I never claimed my audiobook and never thought audible again, until this week when I was living on a budget of $80 for 10 days and I saw my checking account drain by $15. Not only did I cancel my audible account, but...my amazon prime account now because I could see this happening again with some other product or purchase." (Jostaman, & C, G. (n.d.).There is no text-to-speech capability for Amazon Kindle. Audiobooks also do not allow you to access the text that is being read or images that are available in text. Some Audible titles lack PDF compnanions. Amazon Kindle and Audible are the most popular in the industry when it comes to followers. Therefore, it is possible to be more successful by emulating the things about them that users like (sharing notes and highlights, seeing how many people highlighted a popular highlight) and bringing along more features, like text-to-screen. Amazon Kindle and Audible have the most followers compared to the entities compared. What this says is that users are proud enough to tell their friends about Amazon Kindle and Audible and to want to know more about Amazon. Nevertheless, Amazon Kindle still does not have a text-to-speech function. Therefore, it is lacking if it's interests were to reach a wider more diverse audience and appeal to those people who are blind or audiovisual learners. Still, what is most favorable is how Amazon Kindle can turn a solitary activity like reading into a social activity as shown by highlights and notes that can be shared in it's complementary app/website, Goodreads.com. When it comes to Audible, the fact that the business is for profit may ensure a more viable product, but a lot of dissatisfied customers when it comes to cost leadership (Jostaman, & C, G. (n.d.). It is also notable that when it comes to Audible's audiobooks, some titles come with PDF companions that are not always made available via Audible.* S — Strengths: Allows users to upload documents, highlight, and take notes. Notes and highlights are displayed on a separate screen while also providing a view of a table of contents and the ability to search the entire document.
* W — Weaknesses: Does not allow text-speech. Does not generate formatted citations nor allow patrons to search a database of content. Books are generally not cost effective and most e-textbooks are not contained.
* O — Opportunities: Kindle could allow text-to-speech, it could also have an AI component that allows users to chat with an AI, test through quizzes themselves, and listen to podcasts about content.
* T — Threats: Kindle could allow users to host pirated information and be sued. Patrons might rely on subscription services like Everand or university or public library databases where they can research and get richer content tailored to their academic needs.
For profit
14
Apple Inc.'s Apple Bookshttps://www.apple.com/apple-books/Apple Books provides access to licensed/purchased eBooks and audiobooks as well as the ability to download and read one's own PDFs. April, 2010Apple had 321 funding rounds. It is unclear how many funding rounds Apple Books has.Users pay to access licensed eBooks and audiobooks.The number of visits to Apple Books app is unknown.Apple Books has over two millionOnline digital content storeLinkedIn (None) Facebook (129K) Instagram (412K) eBooks and audiobooksUsers can rate and review for purchased titles. There is a capacity to highlight, hence copy and paste, bookmark without the possibility of note-taking, yet one can search the web to hyper-read* or look up definitions on a system dictionary. Users can save data on through Apple iCloud, Google account or harddrive. Users can have an account associated with iCloud. Allows patrons to self-publish books to Apple Books. Users who purchase a title may add rating and reviews.One of the best things about Apple Books is that you are reading it on an iPhone and one might be able to, were one aware of it, read text-to-screen by swiping down from the top–provided you have enabled "Speek Screen" in Accessibility features in the Settings app. What works even better for patrons is the ability to self-publish their books with 70% royalties. Apple Books also has the most titles, among the entities compared in this research, at two billion. Apple Inc. is headquartered in Apple Park, Cupertino, California, U.S.A"I do love this app. I did like it when I could put large PDF’s in here. My favorite thing to do is have the book read to me via the read function.... I like how the portion being read is highlighted and it scrolls as it’s reading. I would like to offer a suggestion that I think many will love, why not offer a book print and audio option so that it could do that via the app and I can listen on CarPlay. I...would love being able to buy a book that also offers the audio so I can follow along when I can and hear the author’s reading it to me. Recently using the read function has been glitchy and it’s been skipping parts, especially in the end of the chapters. I’m not sure if this is what other reviewers were talking about, but this is what I experience when using the read function" (Apple et. al, 2010).It is not possible to see a separate page showing the instances where text is highlighted. You would have to go through the text page after page to find highlights. It is possible for you to add "text" to a file and potentially destroy it without there being possibility to add notes to the file. There is no text-to-speech capability. Apple Books is the most notable for having the most number of titles in its holdings. However, it is missing e-journals and allows just about anyone to become an author, which should not necessarily be part of one's framework since quality is what one should seek. Nonetheless, it still does not have prominent features, like text-to-screen, embedded in its platform.Among other competitors, Apple Books has the most titles available. However, this may not speak for quality in the long run, for readers and authors alike. Anyone can publish anything at anytime, even though proposed published text is reviewed by Apple Books, there are not necessarily any arbiters of canonical text i.e reviewers of the New Times Book Review etc. to judge and/or promote your books. Moreover, 70 percent royalties is a notable benefit of publishing with Apple Books compared to other avenues. There are some other setbacks within the app itself. One might think that one cannot view all highlights on the same page, as I thought, because of an interface that is not user-friendly. It is still not yet possible to get text to speech that is consistent without having to swipe down with two fingers after enabling "Speak Screen" in Accessibility features in the Settings app, which many people may not know about. Not having text-to-speech capacity in the app itself may make Apple loose a lot of readers, who may want to listen while driving, as mentioned by one reviewer (Apple et. al, 2010).* S — Strengths: It’s reflow-able, allowing users to change the type, background, and line size. Users can highlight, take notes, search, copy, look for definitions and upload texts.
* W — Weaknesses: Apple Books does not have an embedded text-to-speech capability nor can one search for texts contained in a library database. Does not have a pre-formatted citation in APA or MLA.
* O — Opportunities: Apple Books could allow text-to-speech. It could also allow an AI component that gives users the option to generate a podcast out of content, while also being able to quiz themselves, chat with the AI, and enable summaries.
* T — Threats: Apple Books could allow users to host pirated information and be sued.

For profit
15
Internet Archive Website and AppArchive.org |Internet Archive is a web and app based solution to video, audiobook, eBook and magazine access for free with an account.May, 1996Internet Archive had two funding rounds.Internet archive solicits donations from individual users in the form of books and funds. Archive.org has 151.1M visits per month | 15 million downloads per month.Internet Archive has over 2 million titles.Multiformat database LinkedIn (38k) Facebook (None official) Instagram (78.7)eBooks, e-journals, audio, video contentUsers can add a text to their favorite, highlight, hence copy and paste, download files at times, share, bookmark, adjust contrast and brightness, invert colors, switch to grayscale. Users can create an account. They can access text-to-speech.Allows patrons to share copyrighted text with other users. Users can amass view counts. It is possible to generate a new view count with preview of an item. Internet Archive works well as a nonprofit endeavor that allows users to post their own files, which include videos, audio, PDF and text files, and share with a community with dates, relevance, chronology, and view counts that people can use to sort through searches. It relies on individual and publisher donations of funds and books to keep running it's vast library, which enables it to fill it's proverbial shelf with more recent titles. Furthermore, what it excels at is creating a community of shared resources that is not seen elsewhere. Like Amazon, it creates avenue for making reading a formerly solitary endeavor, social, while unlike Amazon doing so cheaply. Most promising of all is the fact that text-to-speech is possible.Internet Archive is headquartered in San Francisco, CA"Great site for books and movies: This site has a lot of books and movies available to borrow at no cost. They do welcome donations to help them operate and expand the catalog. If your looking for old books or movies or even sitcoms many are available on this platform. The site operates without interruptions unlike many other video streaming sites that stop and you have to restart and fast forward to where you left off. I highly recommend this site as I have been able to find everything I have searched for" (Iliya & Smith, 2024).

"I do not recommend using this site due to its strict policies and terms of use and slow upload and download speeds." (Iliya & Smith, 2024).		Most of the e-texts provided by Internet Archive are dated.The Internet Archive is a beautiful dream. It functions in idea as a good framework, but, on screen, it is full of glitches. It may be important to adopt a nonprofit framework but have stellar UX design that is aware of the sort of goals users want to achieve. Internet Archive allows a lot of institutions and scholars to host ancient tests that may otherwise not see the light of day. Many of these texts are also downloadable, which is a socially and sustainably conscious move. It also makes available, through the sponsorship of authors and publishers, more recent titles as well. Furthermore, it fails at observed glitches when turning pages and when it comes to slowness and download speed (Iliya & Smith, 2024). Other most notable disappointments include the fact that the text does not sync to where you last read on another devise. It is also not reflowable, therefore you cannot pick your favorite fonts or sizes. Some Internet Archive's text can prove to be too small to read on a cellphone when you have the whole page of a physical book laid out. But most notably, one can access Text-to-Speech through the platform.* S — Strengths: Allows users to add contrast, grayscale, invert colors, adjust brightness, highlight, and use text-to-speech of texts. Contains audiobooks and pictures. Does not have formatted citation information but allows users to view meta data of an artifact. Users can also upload files. Sometimes, Internet Archive might ask users to take down copyrighted information.
* W — Weaknesses: Does not have a place where one could copy the formatted citation of texts. It is not possible to take notes or highlight. Text is not reflow-able. Users cannot download MP3 of text-to-speech. You can also only borrow for short periods of time for copyrighted text, then you must renew your borrowed text. Most of the texts are dated and may have later editions.
* O — Opportunities: There could be an AI component of the website that allows users to chat about topics, quizzes them on components of the topic, and creates podcasts to help users grasp materials. It should be possible to take notes and put said notes on one page. There should be formatted citations based on certain popular style guides.
* T — Threats: Internet Archive could allow users to host pirated information and be sued. Users may rely on public or university library databases where they can get richer, more modern content that’s tailored to their academic needs.
Nonprofit
16
Corporation for Digital Scholarship's Zoterohttps://www.zotero.orgZotero allows patrons to collate and store, highlight, underline, copy and search PDFs of citations, making research less overwhelming. October 5th, 2026Monthly visits: 4.604M
Monthly Unique Visitors: 2.097M		NoneResearch organization toolNoneUsers can upload, highlight, and annotate texts and generate citations. It allows users to collate, annotate and upload files, while orgnizing them. Zotero is headquatered in Fairfax, Virginia."Zotero does a lot of things that are often split across many different apps: citation management within other proprietary software, PDF and ebook reading and annotation across devices, library syncing across multiple devices, note-taking and web-clipping... It's a lot! All while not mining and selling personal data. I have been using Zotero as a research tool for several years now across my iPad, desktop and phone. It syncs without issue.
There are always new features to develop ano improve, and the developers are super responsive to requests and bugs. So grateful to this team" (casch, 2026).		Zotero could incorporate options like the ability for the AI to gernerate a table of contents, search databases, and use AI to converse about the subject, quiz oneself and create podcasts. Zotero is a useful app for collating data and organizing research. It has a lot of neat tools that allow users to upload documents, highlight, search the text, add text boxes, and add notes. There is also a possibility of generating citations, undoing and redoing the steps you take to alter your documents. Users can also host websites on the screen and hide the navigation. Nonetheless, the app can be improved by allowing users to search all sorts of texts as well as having an AI component that allows users to generate conversations, podcasts, and summaries.* S — Strengths: Allows users to collate and organize texts. Allows users to upload files to the app, where they can highlight, search the text, add text boxes, and add notes (although there is no central place to view the notes). It is also possible to undo and redo and host webpages within the screen, as well as hide the navigations. It generates MLA, APA, and other citations for the articles stored.
* W — Weaknesses: It is not a database, so it is not possible to search it.
* O — Opportunities: Zotero should have a central page for notes and highlights. It should also allow users to search databases for texts that are available globally. It would be helpful to incorporate an AI component where users can chat with the AI, summarize content, and generate podcasts and quizzes.
* T — Threats: Zotero could allow users to host pirated information and be sued.
Nonprofit
17
Speechify, Inc.'s Speechifyhttps://speechify.comSpeechify allows users to upload, access, and listen to digital text in text-to-speech.2017Speechify has: monthly visits: 6.677M and monthly unique visitors: 3.250M to the website. It is unknown how many visits there are to the app.60,000 titlesOnline eBook store and appeBooksUsers can upload, highlight, and annotate texts. Not only does it have a database of books, it also allows you to choose from serveal voices including those of celebrities. Main headquateres is in Miami, FL."This app has helped me a lot with reading and writing and my schoolwork given that I'm visually impaired and have trouble seeing so this app has helped me quite a bit though over the years using it it has been very glitchy with the scanning, but either way all the high-tech chat with Al and have it read back to you and be very useful has been really nice!" (Torf phone, 2026).How can spechify change its database to allow for reading from a particular location instead of reading the whole text all the time?* S — Strengths: Has collapsible menus, you can customize the speaker audio with celebrities’ voices, and you can add files. There is an AI component that allows you to summarize the text, quiz yourself on the entire text, and create a podcast out of the text.
* W — Weaknesses: Does not allow you to skip ahead to a different section on the mobile app, and there are too many voices to choose from.
* O — Opportunities: It should be possible to create quizzes out of particular content or sections and skip to particular sections with the Text-to-Speech feature.
* T — Threats: The tutor chat and AI components are forward-thinking and involve cutting edge software/technology. The celebrity voices are engaging, especially for younger college students. This app does what the majority of other similar apps have yet to catch up on.
For profit
18
Scribd's Everandhttps://www.everand.comEverand provides subscription-based database access via web and mobile to articles, eBooks, audiobooks and podcastsNovember, 2023No funding roundsEverand generates revenue from user subscriptions. Everand has: monthly visits: 2.641M and monthly unique visitors: 1.511M
to the website. It is unknown how many visits there are to the app. 		Everand has 1.5M audiobooks and eBooksDatabaseLinkedIn (None) Facebook (12K) Instagram (38.7K)Books, audiobooks, and podcasts.Users can highlight and annotate texts.Allows you to listen to a host of audio books and access a host of books, with 1-5 unlocks every month with a subscription. It allows annotation tools and note-taking with a centralized place to view them.Everand's headquarters are located in San Francisco, California."I've been subscribed to scribd/Everand for about 10 years. They split apps a few years ago but atleast the functionality was there.
Now everything is limited or requires some other plan. I canceled my subscription. Just buy the books elsewhere for cheaper. Atleast you won't lose access to it when Everand decides to screw with prices" (DaCheese69, 2026) 		Ever since Everand switched its model to exclude Scribd where users can upload and view various documents, it was met with very unhappy customers. Users appear to be dissatisfied with this app, with good reason. The app has changed its business model and offers fewer incentives for being a patron. This is since it shifted from a Scribd model that also contained user uploads and the possibility of reading a wider variety. It also has not caught on to AI to enhanced learning nor does it allow users to have pre-formatted citations.* S — Strengths: Allows you to access both eBooks and audiobooks. In the eBooks section, you can search the text, highlight, and create notes and bookmarks while downloading.
* W — Weaknesses: Downloads are only available to you as long as you are subscribed but not when you are not subscribed (like Audible). There is no text-to-speech feature. The AI component only works for asking support questions. Users cannot upload their own files, although this capacity is available in a separate app, Scribd, developed by the same company. Users cannot generate citations according to specific style guides.
* O — Opportunities: Everand can allow for text-to-speech and could create an AI component that enables users to generate quizzes, podcasts, summaries, and conversations.
* T — Threats: Everand’s model is not cost-effective, as another app could come around, give users the AI tools they need to learn, and be more cost-effective, thus putting Everand out of business.
For profit
19
NaturalReaderhttps://www.naturalreaders.comTo turn text into speech using AI voices2001No funding roundsSubscriptions and commercial liscencing UnknownNoneText-to-speech appLinkedIn (None) Facebook (114) Instagram (77)NoneUsers can add PDF and .docx files, websites, and images of textAllows users to upload content to listen to. Allows one to generate voices through recordings, listen to hand writing and PDFs, and .docx files as well as websites and images of text. Richmond, British Columbia, Canada“This is the best app for reading to you. Copy and paste from a book and it reads it to you in the voice of your choice! It automatically turns screen shots or pictures from your phone into a pof file so you can take pictures of pages from a book and drag those iPhone photos straight into the app and it will read them to you. It doesn't sounds robotic, it sounds natural.” (ReførmedTheøløgy, 2026).* S — Strengths: Natural Readers allows users to upload and read text in pictures, on websites, and in PDF documents while helping them increase or reduce sleep, rewind and fast forward, and choose a preferred AI voice. Users have the option of creating a new voice using their voice and can listen to the text with that voice. They can also listen to documents with handwritten notes. Users are able to view original files and pictures of PDFs as they read.
* W — Weaknesses: The app does not have a database where users can search for and download articles and books. It does not allow users to generate citations for texts. Users cannot create a transcript or digital document of handwritten content. They cannot highlight or annotate/notetake within a text.
* O — Opportunities: The app could include a database that would allow users to transcribe handwriting and cite sources. It could allow annotation and notetaking.
* T — Threats: Speech Central, Apple Books and Speechify allow you to highlight and annotate text. Vitalsource and Jstor allow you to generate pre-formatted citations of sources. Users could upload pirated content.
20
References
Apple, AN-G!, Mor, R., & SpringByJ. (2010, April 2). Apple Books. App Store Preview: Apple Books. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-books/id364709193
Aurora University. (n.d.). Library Guides: Using Google Scholar for Your Research: Pros and Cons of Using Google Scholar. Pros and Cons of Using Google Scholar - Using Google Scholar for Your Research - Library Guides at Phillips Library. https://libguides.aurora.edu/c.php?g=1452016&p=10792723
Bond, J. (2018, May 21). What is Google Scholar?. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmYVDWMrtwI
casch. (2026, March 15). The best research tool! [Review of the mobile app Zotero]. Apple App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zotero/id1513554812
DaCheese69. (2026, June 22). Nickel and dimed for everything [Review of the mobile app Everand: Audiobooks & ebooks]. App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/everand-audiobooks-ebooks/id542557212
Dilger, B., Strv1982, R, I., Horme, M., & Meadowcroft. (2024, May 10). Kindle Amazon is rated “poor” with 2.1 / 5 on Trustpilot. Trustpilot. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/kindle.amazon.com
Hazeley, & Kathryn van Beek, Lambert, Dr. C. P. (2023, October 6). Taylor & Francis is rated “poor” with 2.5 / 5 on Trustpilot. Trustpilot. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.tandfonline.com
Iliya, & Smith, D. (2024, March 11). Internet archive is rated “average” with 3 / 5 on Trustpilot. Trustpilot. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/archive.org
Jostaman, & C, G. (n.d.). Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Audible premium plus. Customer Reviews: Audible Premium Plus. https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Membership/product-reviews/B00NB86OYE
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*Information about whether products was for or non for profit were gathered from Google AI, so was the revenue streams and funding rounds for Google Scholar as well as to find when Everand was formed, and where Everand, Google Scholar, Speechify, Zotero are headquartered.

I used Perplexity AI to generate citations for the Zotero, Everand, and Natural Reader reviews, as I could not find other adaptions for app reviewed in APA 7. I intuited it was the best bet considering sites like this: https://www.bibliography.com/apa/reviews-and-peer-commentary-apa-citations/. And this—https://libguides.scu.edu.au/apa/social-media. I do not remember where I got the formula for the previous citations.
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This free tool is part of the UX Strategy Toolkit that accompanies Jaime Levy's book "UX Strategy". (CC) 2020 - http://userexperiencestrategy.com
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