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Amazon.comWerner Vogels at ITConversationsFYI: a 45-minute talk by Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels at the 2005 O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference, E-Commerce at Interplanetary Scale. Only started listening, so I can't comment on it. After listening, I might be even less qualified to comment on it. Yet it seems worth passing on since his blog posts have been rare lately.
Werner Vogels at ITConversations
Why the lack of attribute-based refinement at Amazon.com?I find this puzzling. Amazon.com does a decent job of breaking its products into sub-categories, but they rarely refine by attributes, and when they do it tends to be haphazard. Take a category that almost everyone does well, digital cameras. Amazon allows us to refine using a narrow (grrr!) range of megapixels, but where are the other attributes, even ones as basic as price? Actually, price-refinement is available on the advanced search page, but this is divorced from the ability to select by megapixels. Right hand, left hand, you know the rest... Perhaps Amazon does not mind letting other sites take the lead in the early stages of the buying process, because many people will have to go through them eventually for things like reviews and fulfillment? Yet, if they are not into attributes, why do it at all, why do it so half-heartedly? Maybe since their early products (books, music, videos) relied on recommendations more than attribute refinement, it is not in their DNA?
Why the lack of attribute-based refinement at Amazon.com?
Amazon.com RedesignSearchViews comments on the new Amazon.com redesign.
Amazon.com Redesign
New Comparison Shopping Site: Amazon.comI have been meaning to add a category and start covering Amazon.com, who is really a comparison shopping powerhouse, disguised as a retailer. No time like the present, considering this interview with Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels in BusinessWeek. Highlight: "Vogels believes Amazon will get close to providing users with perfect information within five to 10 years."
New Comparison Shopping Site: Amazon.com
A9 Introduces the Visual Yellow PagesWow! A9's "block view" is trying to change the way we interact with the Yellow Pages. Try it: "starbucks seattle" brings up listings like this one for Starbucks. A decade ago, who would have thought we would be able to have so much interaction with the yellow pages? Will usage of the paper yellow pages become one of the markers of old age, like ten-cent movies and walking uphill in the snow -- both ways -- were for our grandparents? I'm already liking several of the features. Each listing comes with a large default photo, and several smaller photos taken at different angles. You do not even need to click the thumbnails to enlarge them, the change is made in real-time simply by hovering your mouse over them. Also, there is a check box under each thumbnail that allows visitors to vote on the best image of the business. Also, if you know me, you know I kinda have a thing for structured information. So does Amazon.com, as we can see by clicking on a "Update Business Info" link, which leads to a form that includes the following structured fields: Products and Services Services: [ ] Delivery [ ] After Hours [ ] Pick Up [ ] Repair Hours of Operations: (drop-down boxes for all types of hours) Languages Spoken: English Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Esperanto, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Other _____ Payment and Offers Terms of Payment: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Diners Club, JCB, Personal Checks, Travelers Checks, Cash, Insurance, Purchase Orders, Government Contracts, Cash On Deliver, Foreign Currency, Money Orders, Financing Available Free Estimate/Assement: Yes, No, N/A Senior Discount: Yes, No, N/A Wholesale, Business-to-Business: Yes, No Retail, Business-to-Consumer: Yes, No The form also includes numerous unstructured fields, such as Slogan or Tagline, Key Services and Product Offering, Brands Sold or Represented, Associations & Affiliations, Licenses & Certifications, Special Offers, Guarantees, yada yada yada. How does this compare to the other Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs)? This could be cause for an Internet Yellow Pages Shootout. Amazon.com has a cute yellow tab for the Yellow Pages with the little "walking fingers" image. How prominant will this tab be when the service comes out of beta? Further reading & discussion at Threadwatch.
A9 Introduces the Visual Yellow Pages
Is comparison shopping bad for Amazon.com?That is the question being asked by the Internet Stock Blog. Answer: yes, but not necessarily for the reason mentioned in this post. I could be wrong, but my feeling is that many (most?) of the people who are super-concerned with price differences have already found a favorite price comparison engine or two. Similar to the fear among advertisers that sooner or later everyone would get ad-blocking software. It could happen, but only if it came enabled by default on new computers (i.e. Norton). Growth rates cannot be extrapolated from the early adopters, if the rest of the market might not know enough or care enough to go down the same path. The mass market will need more hand-holding. For price comparison, this could happen if Froogle and Yahoo! Shopping get increased exposure on their parent search engines. Okay, now let's talk about the real threat. Background: I talk to a lot of people about their online shopping experiences. From the tech elite at industry conferences to Joe and Jane Surfer in middle America, I'm always asking some variation of the same question, "what is your process to search online for fuzzy blue widgets?" Not surprisingly, a decent percent of people start their search for books, music, videos, electronics, and other common consumer goods at Amazon.com. But not once has anyone cited lowest-price as their primary motivation. What keeps them coming back to Amazon? Reviews. Amazon.com is an irresistible "honeypot" to online shoppers because they have a critical mass of trusted reviews. In the words of Joe Shopper, "Where am I most likely to find enough good reviews on my product (any product) to get comfortable with my decision?" In the past, Amazon.com’s main competitor in this area was Epinions, now Shopping.com. These days, there is a new threat that casts a long shadow: Froogle. Last year, Google put the web on notice of a new philosophical direction when it unveiled aggregated product reviews. I was more than a little surprised at the ho-hum response to this development, when everyone is so gaga over Google. Maybe it is because Froogle still needs an extreme usability makeover. Nevertheless, this is a few tweaks away from being ground-breaking stuff. If Froogle goes on to become a shopping comparison powerhouse, we'll be able to look back and identify merchant reviews & product reviews as the turning point. Will this be the year that Google finally throws some resources at Froogle? p.s. - Internet Stock Blog - Ticker: SHOP is one for the bookmarks.
Is comparison shopping bad for Amazon.com?
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