Nook and Kindle books are not the same?

[MikeFromMesa]

I had always thought that the eBooks that are sold by Barnes & Noble and by the Amazon Kindle store were basically identical. The publisher produced an eBook version and the stores sold it. But is this true?

I recently bought 1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls by Winston Groom from the Kindle store for the Kindle app on my iPad. When I started to read it I found that the footnote and source links in the book only worked in the forward direction. That is, I could follow the link to the source or footnote, but the reverse link was not active. Since I like to follow the source and footnotes I was unhappy enough to return the book to Amazon.

Today I was in my local B&N and downloaded the same book to the store's Nook Color. The links worked in both directions. Why? It is not the reader apps since both iPad apps (the Kindle and Nook) support links in both directions as I have read books where the links are active in both directions. Both the Kindle and B&N versions are from the same publisher (Grove).

I bought the B&N version, downloaded it to my iPad and the links work in both directions. I know they will work on my Nook Color since they worked in the store. But only on the B&N version and not the Kindle version? Does anyone know what is going on here? I am reasonably sure it is not due to differences in the apps.

[TimW]

The "back" button takes you from the footnote back to the text.

[MikeFromMesa]

Originally Posted by TimW

The "back" button takes you from the footnote back to the text.

In truth I had not thought to check that and you may well be right, but I am not sure it answers the basic question - Why is it that the referenced link itself is not active in one version but is in the other? Are there, in fact, different versions or not?

[volwrath]

Well ones ePub format and one is mobi format, and each format has its own nuances so the text will vary somewhat

[MikeFromMesa]

Originally Posted by volwrath

Well ones ePub format and one is mobi format, and each format has its own nuances so the text will vary somewhat

I had always supposed that the underlying html was the same regardless, and that links would either work or not work based on the existence of a link in the html. That is, either the link is there or it is not.

The issue here is not that the text is varying - it is not. It is that the links work in one edition and don't in the other, and both ePub and mobi formats support those links. I have books in both formats where the links work, but this was the first where it worked in one format and not in the other.

I am just puzzled, but that is not something new ...

[dwig]

Originally Posted by MikeFromMesa

...Why is it that the referenced link itself is not active in one version but is in the other? ...

They made a mistake in the production of the Kindle version. They should have removed the return link since using the Back button is a basic tenant of the "Zen of the Kindle".

[HarryT]

Indeed it is. I am somewhat curious as to why the original poster returned it. The Kindle version doesn't need the back link; that's precisely what the back button is for.

As to why it varied, presumably the creator of the book realised that the back links were redundant on the Kindle version and disabled them.

[detayls]

Originally Posted by dwig

... using the Back button is a basic tenant of the "Zen of the Kindle".

That would be "tenet" and not "tenant". Sorry to be pedantic.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tenet