I think the sign of a good invention is when said invention makes you wonder how you ever went without it.
I kind of feel that way about the functionality of this new button that Amazon’s launched.
Just send once and read everywhere on any of your Kindle devices or free Kindle reading apps for iPhone, iPad and Android phones or tablets. No more hunting around for that website or blog that caught your eye — just open your Kindle and all the content you sent is right there.
It’s been adopted by The Washington Post and TIME, and plays nice with free Kindle apps for mobile phones. It can even be neatly plugged into applications for Mac, PC, Chrome, and Firefox.
Some might say that this is simply a glorified “Send to Email” button, and they wouldn’t be totally incorrect. But it’s nice to have a formal, online library where the content is actually inviting to read (and not just dumped into a text box).
I haven’t been a fan of Kindle thus far in my life (though I wouldn’t say they’re an enemy of mine, either), this is one offering that’s made me look at the brand differently.
I recently bought a DVD series on Amazon, which consisted of about 4 discs.
Amazingly, the lot of them cost me just shy of $15. But the shipping was another story.
It was literally a few cents less than the actual goods I was buying.
For discs!
That weigh under a pound!
Cumulatively!
It seems that customers are not the only ones who are unhappy. After all, unhappy buyers mean unhappy sellers. And unhappy sellers could mean a less profitable exhibitor.
“Amazon said many of the fee increases have been driven by rising costs, such as higher gas prices and hence transport expenses. It said it has also invested in changes to get products to customers quicker – a push that third-party sellers will benefit from because faster shipping should increase sales.”
But that’s not exactly what’s happening. Margins are decreasing and merchants are ranting since their pie pieces have become noticeably smaller.
It’s rumoured that Google and WalMart could saunter in right about now and offer merchants some relief. Unless Amazon gets a hold of the situation, that seems like a very real threat that I’d be more than willing to support.
Especially if shipping were priced at under $15/lb.
In a 2011 press release announcement, Mark Zuckerberg revealed this little gem: “The news feed is one of the most important things we’ve built.”
Which is a bit ironic, considering a feed literally does the work for you.
You tell it where to pull from, and it pulls.
Granted, pulling stories from people you actually know and care about (slash stalk, and can only dream of knowing) is the unique angle. But feed technology isn’t exactly the science of rockets.
In any case, news feeds will more closely resemble the timeline. Less sneak peek, more full story.
One of the new aspects of the feed? Filters.
You can choose to see Friends Only.
Pictures. Groups. You get it.
This means that while marketers and advertisers might be able to make use of more real estate on the feed, users can also choose to ignore those efforts. And I’m guessing they will.
In any case, this is sure to be something that everyone will have an opinion about, since we are all marketers, or people being marketed to. Click here to develop preemptive hatred towards this change.
