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View Poll Results: How do you shop for books?
In bookshelf mode 10 21.28%
In Amazon mode 37 78.72%
Voters: 47. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 06-04-2008, 06:47 AM   #16
SpiderMatt
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Most of the books I read I find from reading about them elsewhere. This is probably from blogs or news. Sometimes I find good books while browsing, but online flash is not a good browsing experience. Ultimately, price is going to determine where I shop. Unfortunately, Borders is not at a point where they can be competitive enough with Amazon to lure me away from the king of online bookstores.
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Old 06-04-2008, 10:09 AM   #17
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I still like shelf mode (real shelves -- I haven't used an electronic version). I like the surprise factor when something really interesting appears unexpectedly.

Some misgivings about the amazon system:
- I don't like the "follow-the-herd" effect of buying what everyone else is buying or things that are just like everything else I have already read.
- Poor space utilization makes it time consuming. I have a 20" screen and the Amazon recommendations page only fits 5 books vertically (6 on the Kindle Books section), so it's lots of scrolling, find the next page button and repeat. If anything looks interesting, it's off to another page to get more details. Then back, etc. Putting multiple books per line and perhaps smaller cover pictures would help. So would mouseover help revealing additional info rather than requiring a trip to a new page.
- Limited navigation choices. If you checked the first 20 pages of Kindle science fiction last week, how easy is it to start at page 21 today? If you want to browse authors and quickly zero in on a few to see which of their books are available, now easy is that? How about excluding, say, Start Trek novels from the list? Seems like a lot more could be done here.
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Old 06-04-2008, 10:22 AM   #18
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I still would love to be able to walk into a bookstore, browse and then purchase ebook versions. Barring that, I usually go by recommendations from websites such as this one and Amazon and then go to Fictionwise or Baen depending on the book. Purchasing from Amazon is a last resort and only if the price is very compelling and I don't care if the ebook is locked to my Kindle.
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Old 06-04-2008, 10:41 AM   #19
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For me, the most important feature in Amazon is the Reader's Reviews. Very useful.
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Old 06-04-2008, 03:18 PM   #20
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I really like there virtual book display. My wife says it appeals to my Second Life hope for the internet, but it makes book browsing for me much more fun.
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Old 06-05-2008, 01:21 AM   #21
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don't get me wrong - there's nothing more magical than going to a real bookstore and running my eyes - and fingers - up and down the shelves, finding new reading or books that are old friends. but when i go to a bookstore, i have an entire real bookshelf at a time to browse - usually multiple shelves.

borders shelves didn't give me that, at least partly because it only shows one shelf at a time, and also because i can't pick up the books. the header, buttons, etc, took up much more of the page than the books did.

i have nothing against brick and mortar stores - i often walk to the local borders, and i also live near a barnes and noble plus 2 great used bookstores are within reasonable driving distance.

but online i want the titles easy to read, easy to get to more titles and i really like the reader reviews and the "other people interested in this title also bought", which has helped me find new authors many times at amazon.
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Old 06-05-2008, 07:18 AM   #22
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any site which forces me to shop in a constrained linear mode (impossible to open several product detail pages at once, in tabs) is going to annoy me so much that i won't shop there any more. if i'm going to shop online, i want to be able to fully exploit the advantages of the technology, and one of the main advantages is tabbed browsing. it's the equivalent of piling up a stack of books that catch your eye as you're skimming the shelf looking for something specific (or not), to examine more thoroughly a bit later.
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Old 06-05-2008, 07:58 AM   #23
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In addition to the 'tabbed browsing' problem it gets harder to set bookmarks or just drop somebody the link when relying on *** like flash.

Oh well.. Perhaps we should tell them about

a) Flash is evil. If you want something similar - use your own software
b) If you want a flashy homepage - use AJAX (enable tabbed/multiwindow browsing - its possible even with AJAX) or similar
c) Apply Taylor514ce's excellent proposition: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=14

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Old 06-05-2008, 08:10 AM   #24
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yes, as a graphic designer i adore flash, of course, but as a responsible member of the web community i am more often than not forced to advise my clients that it is absolutely not the best solution for them, with a few exceptions. no online shop should use flash for their interface, ever.

Taylor's suggestion is quite brilliant, i agree. the only thing i dislike about it is the whole "turn shopping into an online dating / networking experience" part, but that's mainly because i absolutely detest that sort of thing and am quite paranoid about being tracked online by unseen strangers... it makes me start looking over my shoulder nervously and have to resist the urge to shrink down and hide under my desk. "i prefer to remain anomalous" as they say, right ?
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Old 06-05-2008, 08:13 AM   #25
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I totally understand your point towards networking. Let's make this point optional, though that you dont have to use this network (and can in fact stay non-existent on it).
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Old 06-05-2008, 08:17 AM   #26
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yes, well in that case i agree that there really would be little room for improvement. Taylor, what are you waiting for to sell the idea to all the stores on the planet ? you know that, not having planet-sized craniums, they'll never come up with it on their own...
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Old 06-12-2008, 02:18 PM   #27
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Email from Amazon

Dear Customer:

Starting May 31, 2008, the Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com website is no longer associated with Amazon.com. If you have been a customer of Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com teamed with Amazon.com, you have the option to receive information from Borders/Waldenbooks via e-mail--simply click on the link below and sign up by June 15, 2008:

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Old 06-12-2008, 02:45 PM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel View Post
yes, well in that case i agree that there really would be little room for improvement. Taylor, what are you waiting for to sell the idea to all the stores on the planet ? you know that, not having planet-sized craniums, they'll never come up with it on their own...
Sorry, I "zoned-out" of this thread. The issue is that no one will listen, and little ol' me can't do it myself. Plus, try to get investors interested in funding a new bookstore startup, with the state of the industry and the F.U.D. of publishers about ebooks.

In fact, at my local Borders, I HAVE pitched the idea, in depth, to several of their managers, one of whom actually said, "Wait, Wait!", pulled me over into the cafe, took out a notebook, and said "Ok, start over".

So perhaps this will become some middle manager's bright new idea at some point, the origins of which would be lost, were it not for this thread.

Regarding the social networking features, they kind of creep me out "in real life", too, but you know there is a demographic that would love it. So it would fill the bookstore with teenagers. Well, so what? Manga sells would go through the roof.
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Old 06-12-2008, 02:53 PM   #29
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I chose Amazon mode because I Do start my search for new material by category. I do Not however look at anything in the "recommended for you" or rankings type items, it just isn't how I shop or read.

I like the "idea" of a bookshelf, but it would have to be sortable by categories, then authors and possibly by date for it to be useful to me.

Recommended and rankings really don't make sense to Me the reader (or consumer) because no one reads all that I do, no one reads Like I do, so how could anyone suggest something for me based on something that is Like something else I may have purchased? I have not found 1 thing (okay, so I went and looked at it ) that I would even consider purchasing, so, I hold with my it doesn't make sense to me comment!
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Old 06-12-2008, 08:08 PM   #30
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I've had pretty good luck with the Amazon recommendations since I updated my own book history. I didn't put in all the books I like, but I did pick some particular favorite authors and rate several of their books each. Amazon kept recommending Jonathan Stroud's Amulet of Samarkand, for example, which I resisted buying until I came across a copy at a library used book sale. It turned out to be a favorite (so I've read it several times since then, plus the two other books in the series). I've paid a bit more attention to the Amazon recommendations since then, and while they're not all spot-on, they're not bad.

Of course, librarything can do that, too.

I do like browsing the "new in Science Fiction" shelves at my local book stores, and I suppose if Borders had something similar, I might give it a look. But in a book store I can read several pages if I want to. If Borders doesn't offer that, I don't think I'd like the interface at all.

(And yes, Flash is an utterly inappropriate technology for any retail site.)

Edit: Regarding Taylor's excellent proposal, it's funny, but I just finished writing up something like that as part of a research paper for a graduate education class....

Last edited by nekokami; 06-12-2008 at 08:09 PM. Reason: Because I forgot what I was going to say
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