A more logical intersection of Amazon functionality and Microsoft technology is the ability to extend and unify what Microsoft’s primary online applications (IE and Outlook) are good at to appropriate product buying or product research scenarios, which is where Amazon excels. Two examples:
1. I am surfing the net and come across a great review of the new Nokia 3650, and just happen to be in the market for a cell phone. I may not be ready to buy and I may not have even decided that that’s the phone I want. Hence, opening another browser, finding the product on Amazon and saving it to a wishlist is too many clicks and too disruptive for what really amounts to an online discovery of a great review. The ideal in this case is to scroll over the name of the product referenced in the review, click a button, which brings up the product without opening another browser and allows me to save the product to my local wish list (I can have many of them), in the process capturing the review and associating it with the product so when I am ready to think seriously about buying, I have both the product and the inspiration for buying it at my fingertips. Since this product leverages Amazon’s Web Service, I can take advantage of things like one click buying and wish list sync’ing.
2. My friend tells me he is interested in setting up a home network, complete with broadband and Wi-fi. Having gone through the learning curve, found products I trust, articles and reviews that aided coming to the path I came to, and notes on configuration and troubleshooting that I created via trial and error, it would be great if from my email, I could click on the relevant product listings, web content and notes saved in my home networking list, and email it all off to my friend. Assuming such functionality integrates with my email, I don’t have dealing with clicking on 15 attachments, or uploading content to a web site or manually re-enter addresses that are already in my email address book. Even better, if I am an Amazon Associate, I can make a few shekels when my friend buys the products that I recommended.
For what it’s worth, this product is in beta (it goes public beta in a matter of days), it’s a free download, and is designed around the concept of delivering SOS (save, organize and share) functionality to the online experience to make cultivating topics of interest more systematic and friction free. If you have an interest in participating in the beta, send an email to beta@verdada.com.
Hopefully, not too much of a plug but this is a really cool product that we designed after concluding that there was a need for a better way to research products, cultivate topics of interest and plan travel/going out activities (other functionality I won’t go into here).
Mark