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Their website is garbage for how popular it is. It’s really hard to navigate the sections for controlling your kindle, digital purchases, or settings.

zinckiwi 8y ago
That's true. I still can't quite believe that although family sharing is a thing, and collections are a thing, I can't share a collection. I want to add books to a "Kids" collection and have that collection shared with them in Kindle for Kids. Can't be done. Need to share each book with each kid, one click at a time.
- rjsw 8y ago
  Or just be able to buy a book for a relative and have it added to their Kindle. Maybe it is possible but it isn't obvious how to do it.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    It's possible, and fairly easy. You should see a "Buy for others" section on most Kindle book pages, right below the main purchase options. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201964280 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...
beojan 8y ago
And why does the UI language depend on which country's version you're visiting? It makes sense for the descriptions, but the UI is the same in all versions.
slivym 8y ago
Whilst their website is terrible, I actually think the specifics of what Amazon does makes it very difficult for the website to be good. They sell a million versions of a million products in a million sectors. What is useful for me to know when buying a hard disk is not the same thing that is useful for me to know when buying a bottle of wine. So they either have 1 size fits all, or a huge cost in building almost custom websites for every different sector. I'm not sure it's actually possible to do that well.
- Retric 8y ago
  Having a 100 or so skins for each major section could go a long way without costing Amazon that much. They already do some customization for example showing different sizes for clothing. The problem is they don't face much direct head to head competition. Where online can you buy a digital movie to watch right now, lawn ornaments, an out of print book from 1970, etc without ordering from several websites.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  If it’s possible, Amazon has the resources to do it, they just clearly have decided not to spend them. Fwiw I knew a guy who claimed that the templating language for the main website was written in C headers. I can’t verify that, but if true it’d go a long way to explain why it’s so bad.
- dingaling 8y ago
  Even fixing the infamous 'Choose a Department to enable sorting' problem would be a start. How am I meant to know Amazon's taxonomy? Somehow eBay can sort products across all categories and present them in one list. Wicked majick!
pergadad 8y ago
I like how it's very selectively showing filters. I can filter by price on my laptop, but not using the store on my Kindle. Alright Amazon, I guess you know who are the captive customers, but I'll not buy another Kindle...

zinckiwi 8y ago

That's true. I still can't quite believe that although family sharing is a thing, and collections are a thing, I can't share a collection. I want to add books to a "Kids" collection and have that collection shared with them in Kindle for Kids. Can't be done. Need to share each book with each kid, one click at a time.

rjsw 8y ago
Or just be able to buy a book for a relative and have it added to their Kindle. Maybe it is possible but it isn't obvious how to do it.
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  It's possible, and fairly easy. You should see a "Buy for others" section on most Kindle book pages, right below the main purchase options. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201964280 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...

beojan 8y ago

And why does the UI language depend on which country's version you're visiting? It makes sense for the descriptions, but the UI is the same in all versions.

slivym 8y ago

Whilst their website is terrible, I actually think the specifics of what Amazon does makes it very difficult for the website to be good. They sell a million versions of a million products in a million sectors. What is useful for me to know when buying a hard disk is not the same thing that is useful for me to know when buying a bottle of wine. So they either have 1 size fits all, or a huge cost in building almost custom websites for every different sector. I'm not sure it's actually possible to do that well.

Retric 8y ago
Having a 100 or so skins for each major section could go a long way without costing Amazon that much. They already do some customization for example showing different sizes for clothing. The problem is they don't face much direct head to head competition. Where online can you buy a digital movie to watch right now, lawn ornaments, an out of print book from 1970, etc without ordering from several websites.
village-idiot 8y ago
If it’s possible, Amazon has the resources to do it, they just clearly have decided not to spend them. Fwiw I knew a guy who claimed that the templating language for the main website was written in C headers. I can’t verify that, but if true it’d go a long way to explain why it’s so bad.
dingaling 8y ago
Even fixing the infamous 'Choose a Department to enable sorting' problem would be a start. How am I meant to know Amazon's taxonomy? Somehow eBay can sort products across all categories and present them in one list. Wicked majick!

pergadad 8y ago

I like how it's very selectively showing filters. I can filter by price on my laptop, but not using the store on my Kindle. Alright Amazon, I guess you know who are the captive customers, but I'll not buy another Kindle...