Show HN: I built a book discovery engine using AI-powered semantic search
zilu.appHi all, I built a book discovery engine that lets you search by mood, theme, or aesthetic instead of relying on keywords or bestseller lists.
Try it at www.zilu.app.
The interesting technical aspects: - Uses multi-modal AI (book cover + synopsis embeddings) for search. - Works without predefined genres—users describe a feeling, and AI finds relevant books. - Unlike traditional keyword search, it captures abstract, theme-based queries (e.g., "a surreal, dreamlike novel with a quiet sense of dread"). - Current implementation is cover-based, with text understanding in progress.
Right now, it’s an experiment in redefining content discovery beyond books—potentially applicable to movies, art, and other media.
Would love to hear thoughts, critiques, and ideas! You can try it out at www.zilu.app.
Really like the UI for scrolling through the suggested books, although it does act a little bit buggy on mobile occasionally
thx! which browser are you using on mobile?
safari iOS
appreciate your feedback!