Good news, everyone! We can totally start trusting Amazon reviews again.
The company has been conducting a “sweeping but hazy purge” of customer reviews, according to a recent story in The New York Times. And while Amazon is only barely commenting on the issue, a new FAQ page sheds a little more light on how the company’s position has changed. The page is undated, but an Amazon spokesperson… → Read More
Amazon.com Founder and CEO said in a fireside chat at AWS re:Invent with CTO Werner Vogels that he was surprised by the success of Amazon Web Services. Bezos said they were optimistic that AWS would do well, but they did not anticipate such huge growth. → Read More
Online retail giant Amazon this morning announced that it will open four new distribution centers, two in Virginia and two in Tennessee, and that it will invest a total of $270 million to get the new facilities completed by next fall – just in time for next year’s holiday season.
In Virginia, Amazon says it will create about 1,350 jobs, while the new distribution centers in Tennessee will… → Read More
Amazon has stopped pretending that a group of e-reading apps it allowed onto its Android Appstore weren’t available on the Kindle Fire. For whatever reason, the company was effectively hiding e-reading apps from companies like Wattpad, Kobo and Bluefire, even though they worked perfectly fine on the low-cost tablet computer.
Confused about why its app didn’t appear for users on the Kindle Fire… → Read More
Amazon has acquired a minority stake in Ciceksepeti, which operates an online flower and gifts store in Turkey.
Founded by CEO Emre Aydin in 2006, the company delivers flowers, jewelry, plush toys and other gifts to customers across the country, including same-day deliveries in most metropolitan areas. → Read More
For days, our inboxes have been filled with tips and screenshots about Amazon.com’s redesign, which offers a cleaned up Amazon homepage, without the old site’s iconic blue and orange navigation. Instead, the new site features a much bigger search bar, bigger buttons, and less clutter – all changes that practically scream “tablet-optimized!”
The changes, of course, hint that Amazon’s… → Read More
Similar to a move made in Illinois a few months ago, Amazon has shut down its Associates program in Connecticut after the state imposed a sales tax measure that would tax any purchases made online starting July 1. We’ve embedded the note sent to participants in the Amazon Associates Program below.
As you may know, the program allows website owners to earn money from advertising and linking to… → Read More
Amazon this morning announced that it is debuting a brand new private sales site, featuring fashion items straight from designers and boutique brands.
The membership-only website, MyHabit.com, will offer daily events featuring up to 60 percent off a selection of styles, along with free four-day shipping shipping and returns. → Read More
Yesterday, I broke the story of a small search software outlet named Masterobjects taking on Amazon.com in a notable patent infringement lawsuit.
The patent-in-suit, US patent no. 7,752,326, describes a method to immediately start showing search results even while a user is still typing his query into the search box – instant search if you will. Well, turns out Google is indeed the next target on… → Read More
When you go to Amazon.com and start typing in the top search box, you will automatically see a number of search suggestions for items on sale before you finish typing your query. The company also offers such enhanced search capabilities via browser add-ons and toolbars as well as its mobile applications for the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.
MasterObjects, which offers AJAX and Flash-based… → Read More
Amazon’s Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) is no more, at least not by that name. Starting today, the self-publishing program will be known as Kindle Direct Publishing.
With Kindle Direct Publishing, anyone can self-publish books on the Kindle Store, free of charge. → Read More
Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing business of Amazon.com, this morning announced a new offering dubbed AWS Elastic Beanstalk, aimed to simplify the deployment and management of AWS cloud applications developed by third parties.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk is designed to let developers upload their application and then keep their hands off while the system automatically handles the deployment… → Read More
Sonian, a startup that specializes in cloud-powered information archiving solutions, this morning announced that it has secured $9 million in Series B funding. Previous backers Summerhill Venture Partners and Prism VentureWorks were joined by strategic investors Amazon.com and Webroot.
Sonian says it will use the funds for continued research and development for its information archiving platform… → Read More
Amazon this morning announced that on its peak day for this year, November 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which translates to a – self-proclaimed – record-breaking 158 items per second.
November 29 was, of course, Cyber Monday in the United States, the Monday immediately following Black Friday. → Read More
Amazon.com this morning announced fresh visual search capability in its men’s and women’s shoe stores. Basically, the feature allows Amazon customers to search and browse for shoes based on how they look (example).
The styles are presented graphically as silhouettes within the existing navigation of search refinement, allowing customers to easily handpick shoe shapes from a pre-defined palette… → Read More
Amazon.com has just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Quidsi, which operates ecommerce sites Diapers.com, Soap.com and BeautyBar.com. The acquisition news first broke over the weekend by Fortune’s Dan Primack, who pegged the purchase price at $540 million.
Primack wasn’t that far off – Amazon says it will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Quidsi for approximately $500… → Read More
Ecommerce giant Amazon.com has long been rumored to make a $2 billion play for online private sales club sensation Vente-Privée, but so far a deal hasn’t happened. Now rumors are swirling that Amazon is in late-stage negotiations to acquire Spain-based rival BuyVip instead.
Company executives have denied the rumors so far, but Spanish business publication CincoDías cites multiple sources… → Read More
Ecommerce giant Amazon.com has long been rumored to make a $2 billion play for online private sales club sensation Vente-Privée, but so far a deal hasn’t happened. Now rumors are swirling that Amazon is in late-stage negotiations to acquire Spain-based rival BuyVip instead.
Company executives have denied the rumors so far, but Spanish business publication CincoDías cites multiple sources… → Read More
Amazon.com today introduced the beta version of “Kindle for the Web”, which enables people to read and share digital book samples in their browsers without the need to install or download anything.
The company says it aims to lure bloggers and website publishers who participate in the Amazon Associates Program to embed samples of Kindle books on their websites (here’s how). It seems like a… → Read More
Amazon.com, or rather its Internet Movie Database (IMDb) subsidiary, is launching an Android app, enabling users to get movies information, trailers and showtimes from their Android devices and shop for DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
Functionality includes voice search, sharing, option menus and more. Here’s the listing on AndroLib (the app was named IMDb Movies & TV). → Read More
A day after Amazon made it abundantly clear it’s gunning for world domination in the e-reading space by lowering the price of the Kindle from $259 to $189 – following competitor Barnes & Noble’s decision to slash the price of its Nook e-reader down to $199 – chief executive Jeff Bezos sat down with Fortune’s JP Mangalindan for a fairly interesting interview.
One of the things Bezos talked… → Read More
Amazon Web Services this morning announced the general availability of AWS Import/Export for Amazon Simple Storage Service (aka S3), with a new web service interface that enables easy management of data transfers and migrations.
According to the press release, the new feature accelerates moving large amounts of data in and out using portable storage devices for transport. For large data sets, AWS… → Read More
Amazon.com company Audible this morning announced that its BlackBerry app is now available on BlackBerry App World (apart from only on its own website).
If that’s not enough to make you rush over there, the company is also including, for a limited time, a free download of David Baldacci’s bestselling thriller Divine Justice.
With the Audible app, BlackBerry users in the U.S. and Canada can… → Read More
Right off the heels of announcing an expansion of its Kindle Digital Text Platform to authors and publishers around the world, Amazon has announced that it will soon introduce a new 70 percent royalty option in the program that will allow them to to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book they sell.
For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new royalty option … → Read More
Amazon.com this morning announced that it is expanding its self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform worldwide, giving more authors and publishers the chance to upload and sell books in English, German and French to customers around the world in the Kindle Store.
Until today, DTP was only available to authors and publishers based in the United States. Amazon says additional language options with… → Read More
Can you spell “patent troll”?
Software developer SpeedTrack has filed suit against nearly two dozen major online retailers, including Amazon.com, Best Buy, Overstock.com, Nike, Costco and Dell, accusing the major online retailers of infringing some patent that supposedly covers a search mechanism customers can use to locate products on their websites.
The complaint, filed yesterday in the U.S. → Read More
Amazon has decided to make some changes to its Associates program, no longer allowing third parties to bid on keywords that would send visitors straight to Amazon websites where they’d earn a referral fee for each purchase.
The change only applies to the Associates programs in North America, and the company is referring Associates based outside the U.S. and Canada to check their respective terms… → Read More
We’re pretty sure it’s not, but then again what do we know?
The item is listed on Amazon through the Musician’s Friend storefront. Get it while it’s hot – there are only 5 left in stock.
Update: that didn’t last long. Listing has been updated with a more relevant picture.
if you have some time to kill, read the reviews and the comments on Reddit (where we got the link from). → Read More
If you’re either still awake on Thursday night or have just woken up early Friday morning and you’re getting set to head out to hunt for some video game deals, you might be able to get most of your purchases taken care of from the comfort, warmth, and non-threatening glow of your home computer. Starting at 3 AM Eastern, Amazon.com will be showing just about every retailer how it’s done when… → Read More
It’s all over, folks. Fortune is reporting that the state of New York’s sales tax on goods purchased at Amazon.com starts this Sunday, June 1st. Peter’s already been enraged about it here and here and I’m guessing he’s not going to be too thrilled about this post either. He’s pretty excitable as it is, so hopefully he won’t read this. The state’s… → Read More
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