I just saw the announcement and have a blog post up with my very first impressions:
They pre-announced it once before, then quickly retracted all but the help files. This time, it appears that
Kindle for Web is here to stay. Right now, the app is in beta phase and only available on selected book pages....I invite you to add a comment if you run into one, so we can all give this a try. In the meantime, though, you can try it on the product page reached by clicking on the picture or link above. If you just want to see what is included, I've copied in the main features, below. One of the cooler things you'll be able to do is share a book sample via email ... also, potentially one of the more annoying, I suspect, for recipients.
Update: I was looking in the wrong place for the Read First Chapter Free button - it is located on the paper book product page and looks like it takes the place of the old "Look Inside" feature. Check out the product page for
Easily Amused, by Karen McQuestion (an indie author turned bestseller), and you'll find the button below the usual buy choices, along the right hand side of the screen. I predict that nearly every author will start embedding these on their web pages ... because it is just so easy to do and it lets them give a sample of their books to any reader that passes buy, with no coding effort on their part. Of course, their book does have to be available as a Kindle edition ... which is a win for Amazon and a win for readers of ebooks.