4 ms·

Introducing Amazon's Windowshop.com

41 points by wave 18y ago

aneesh 18y ago
It's a very nice design. It's been up for about a month now.
markbao 18y ago
This is up there with ConnectNow and Buzzword as some of the best-designed and most innovative Flash apps I've seen.
nickb 18y ago
I almost never like Flash-only sites but this is pretty awesome. I love the simplicity of the UI... just arrow keys!
lpgauth 18y ago
Couldn't this be made in javascript? My fan just started (stupid first gen macbook).
- anand 18y ago
  yes it can! see my other comment about zoomii.com
  - liuliu 18y ago
    sorry but it can not. Obviously, amazon's website involving with some kind of 3d transformation of covers/images. That is one thing existing javascript can not do. zoomii.com is impressive, but there is no 3d transformations though I think it is a minor difference.
    - mike_branski 18y ago
      Well to be fair, you CAN do 3D with JavaScript, it's just not as practical. ;) See some of the posts at http://blog.nihilogic.dk/search/label/3d http://blog.nihilogic.dk/search/label/3d
- netcan 18y ago
  Mine too. 3 month old macbook.
liuliu 18y ago
A nice design. Looks familiar with CoolIris. But, it is much harder to view more items since there are limited spaces for large, nice poster. There is no search bar for accurate search, no auto recommendation. It is something like best sell book on nytime or top50 on billboard. I can not get any sense about its usability.
- h34t 18y ago
  I just tried CoolIris, what a pain -- both to install (a 13mb download) and to use (the sweeping scrolling animation lasts way too long, very impractical). I actually enjoyed windowshop... for me, it captures the experience of walking through a bookstore, finding random stuff along the way, but even better, with music and video playing automatically. I agree that auto recommendation would be a 'plus' but as for search, when I want to find something I would use their normal interface (much faster).
anand 18y ago
Zoomii.com is a nice completely javascript version by a friend from a canadian startup. Focused completely on books. Zoomii's really impressive. Its speed makes google maps feel slow.
- morbidkk 18y ago
  yep that was the first thing I recollected as soon as I saw this. I even commented on zoomii blog that this would get propagated to lot of shopping websites. good news really
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  I'm not sure how practical it is, but it's really cool anyway. I felt like I was actually browsing a bookstore.
  - netcan 18y ago
    I think it's practical actually. Or it could be given a little more. It's fast that's the main thing. As long as it works that fast, I think there can be practical applications
  - mechanical_fish 18y ago
    It is surprisingly practical. It's fun to browse through. They propagate a lot of the most important Amazon information through, so that you can look at more than just the covers. And I'm sure it makes the designers of book covers, who work really hard at their art, very happy to see online stores like this. Having said that, here are some reasons why I prefer Amazon's usual interface: * Used book prices * links to other editions (including Kindle, audio, etc.) * "Customers who bought this item also bought" (with ratings) -- I use this to get a quick grasp of the popular titles in any given genre. * The customer ratings, which are of course being gamed these days, but which continue to provide additional perspective in some cases. And, of course, what this is really missing is the ability to open up the book and page easily through it. That's the real killer app for a physical bookstore, and zoomii seems to have less of it than Amazon.com, not more. Amazon offers "Look Inside" for many books, which I don't think is really a great substitute for looking inside a physical book, but it's better than nothing. Is Amazon's interface cluttered? Yes. Is it so cluttered that I'm willing to give up these bits of it in exchange for less clutter? No.
lunchbox 18y ago
Nice. This could be combined with a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" button to learn your tastes and recommend personalized things, just like Pandora.
- natrius 18y ago
  They're Amazon. They already know what most of us like from our purchasing history, but for some reason they aren't using it here.
  - maximilian 18y ago
    They're probably working on it. They probably thought it would be a good idea to get the default version up and running and then worry about personalizing it later.
richcollins 18y ago
All style no substance.
zasz 18y ago
It's nice, but I find it unintuitive that the left/right arrows take you to the top of the next column instead of to the poster immediately to the left or right.
rantfoil 18y ago
This identifies a larger trend that will just continue to find more uses online. Web pages are fundamentally high latency pieces of information. Expansive coverflows like windowshop make it easy to explore information spaces very fast. If you add that plus more aggressive caching of metadata and content on a user's computer (something that was lost with the web) -- there are some really great scenarios out there to be created.
thomasfl 18y ago
Nice to have preview of music and film, but I have to admit that i prefer zoomii.com for windowshopping books. Zoomii got more books and a gives a better overview. Besides, zoomii gives you the feeling of beeing in a physical bookstore.
llimllib 18y ago
It's like getting a free trip to the Great Wall of China but only being allowed to explore it 2 feet away through a magnifying glass.
jyothi 18y ago
I like browsegoods.com better. gives a feel of being in a store.

41 points by wave 18y ago

aneesh 18y ago

It's a very nice design. It's been up for about a month now.

markbao 18y ago

This is up there with ConnectNow and Buzzword as some of the best-designed and most innovative Flash apps I've seen.

nickb 18y ago

I almost never like Flash-only sites but this is pretty awesome. I love the simplicity of the UI... just arrow keys!

lpgauth 18y ago

Couldn't this be made in javascript? My fan just started (stupid first gen macbook).

anand 18y ago
yes it can! see my other comment about zoomii.com
- liuliu 18y ago
  sorry but it can not. Obviously, amazon's website involving with some kind of 3d transformation of covers/images. That is one thing existing javascript can not do. zoomii.com is impressive, but there is no 3d transformations though I think it is a minor difference.
  - mike_branski 18y ago
    Well to be fair, you CAN do 3D with JavaScript, it's just not as practical. ;) See some of the posts at http://blog.nihilogic.dk/search/label/3d http://blog.nihilogic.dk/search/label/3d
netcan 18y ago
Mine too. 3 month old macbook.

liuliu 18y ago

A nice design. Looks familiar with CoolIris. But, it is much harder to view more items since there are limited spaces for large, nice poster. There is no search bar for accurate search, no auto recommendation. It is something like best sell book on nytime or top50 on billboard. I can not get any sense about its usability.

h34t 18y ago
I just tried CoolIris, what a pain -- both to install (a 13mb download) and to use (the sweeping scrolling animation lasts way too long, very impractical). I actually enjoyed windowshop... for me, it captures the experience of walking through a bookstore, finding random stuff along the way, but even better, with music and video playing automatically. I agree that auto recommendation would be a 'plus' but as for search, when I want to find something I would use their normal interface (much faster).

anand 18y ago

Zoomii.com is a nice completely javascript version by a friend from a canadian startup. Focused completely on books. Zoomii's really impressive. Its speed makes google maps feel slow.

morbidkk 18y ago
yep that was the first thing I recollected as soon as I saw this. I even commented on zoomii blog that this would get propagated to lot of shopping websites. good news really
tlrobinson 18y ago
I'm not sure how practical it is, but it's really cool anyway. I felt like I was actually browsing a bookstore.
- netcan 18y ago
  I think it's practical actually. Or it could be given a little more. It's fast that's the main thing. As long as it works that fast, I think there can be practical applications
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  It is surprisingly practical. It's fun to browse through. They propagate a lot of the most important Amazon information through, so that you can look at more than just the covers. And I'm sure it makes the designers of book covers, who work really hard at their art, very happy to see online stores like this. Having said that, here are some reasons why I prefer Amazon's usual interface: * Used book prices * links to other editions (including Kindle, audio, etc.) * "Customers who bought this item also bought" (with ratings) -- I use this to get a quick grasp of the popular titles in any given genre. * The customer ratings, which are of course being gamed these days, but which continue to provide additional perspective in some cases. And, of course, what this is really missing is the ability to open up the book and page easily through it. That's the real killer app for a physical bookstore, and zoomii seems to have less of it than Amazon.com, not more. Amazon offers "Look Inside" for many books, which I don't think is really a great substitute for looking inside a physical book, but it's better than nothing. Is Amazon's interface cluttered? Yes. Is it so cluttered that I'm willing to give up these bits of it in exchange for less clutter? No.

lunchbox 18y ago

Nice. This could be combined with a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" button to learn your tastes and recommend personalized things, just like Pandora.

natrius 18y ago
They're Amazon. They already know what most of us like from our purchasing history, but for some reason they aren't using it here.
- maximilian 18y ago
  They're probably working on it. They probably thought it would be a good idea to get the default version up and running and then worry about personalizing it later.

richcollins 18y ago

All style no substance.

zasz 18y ago

It's nice, but I find it unintuitive that the left/right arrows take you to the top of the next column instead of to the poster immediately to the left or right.

rantfoil 18y ago

This identifies a larger trend that will just continue to find more uses online. Web pages are fundamentally high latency pieces of information. Expansive coverflows like windowshop make it easy to explore information spaces very fast. If you add that plus more aggressive caching of metadata and content on a user's computer (something that was lost with the web) -- there are some really great scenarios out there to be created.

thomasfl 18y ago

Nice to have preview of music and film, but I have to admit that i prefer zoomii.com for windowshopping books. Zoomii got more books and a gives a better overview. Besides, zoomii gives you the feeling of beeing in a physical bookstore.

llimllib 18y ago

It's like getting a free trip to the Great Wall of China but only being allowed to explore it 2 feet away through a magnifying glass.

jyothi 18y ago

I like browsegoods.com better. gives a feel of being in a store.