This is going to be BIG! - Latest Comments in Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

quikness — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:45:57 -0000

That i can agree with. I signed up for Shelfari last night and am going to see how the recommendations work once my library has been input.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

ceonyc — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:51:06 -0000

I think it's just got to be done right... I agree that you don't want
purchase notifications and friend requests interrupting your reading
experience... but when you're shopping or looking for new ideas, social
recommendations would be helpful.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

ceonyc — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:18:59 -0000

I had no idea. *Almost* but not quite... I feel like that's got to be
on someone's roadmap.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

Noah Brier — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:23:37 -0000

Not precisely what you're talking about, but have you been to kindle.amazon.com? It stores all your underlines and notes on the web at least ... Imagine it shouldn't be that hard to add an RSS feed to that thing at some point.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

DonRyan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:21:47 -0000

I like to see interactivity and wifi added to the Kindle. Other than that it's the ideal e-reader. I'm not sure Amazon has bought into the idea of community and the power thereof. You make an excellent point that this would be a perfect place to deploy the recently purchased Shelfari. Maybe in the next version.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

arifuchs — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:51:13 -0000

Well the point of purchase is less important to me than knowing that I should purchase. Right now, I tend to agree with you. I discover and purchase books through social interactions/recommendations. Right now, that's word of mouth and through the web. From what I've heard about it's speed, I don't see myself doing much browsing/discovery from the device itself.

While I'm dreaming though, it'd also be cool to have a 'social' link somewhere on the device that lists your friends who have also read the book, where they are in it (if they share that info) and any highlights/notes that they've made in the book.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

quikness — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:28:35 -0000

knowing what your friends are reading is a great idea but i feel that should be integrated into the shopping experience. to-date i've only made purchases through my computer, not the kindle itself thereby relegating it to do one thing fantastically well: display content.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

arifuchs — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:18:24 -0000

I've been playing with the idea of getting an ebook reader, and social connectivity on the device might be enough to send me over the edge.

It's really silly that it hasn't been added yet. Not only would amazon from an increase in impulse book buys from existing kindle owners, they'd be benefiting from the viral marketing of the device itself. And there's no doubt that social tools would get heavy usage as it satisfies those basic human urges. Primarily, recognition for having read the book, and the obviousness that is curation.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

quikness — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:03:26 -0000

I couldnt disagree more. Every other device in this universe has people crawling all over it but the Kindle allows a calming experience of disappearing into the book. At first i was disappointed in its lack of features but that disappointment lasted 3 seconds upon realizing it was a place i could escape to and revel in the racing thoughts that accompany reading inspiring business people reveal their secrets. I can hardly put it down.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

steve cheney — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:00:25 -0000

I couldn't agree more on the 'sharing' aspect. Book reading is one of the quintessential old-school 'viral' activities for the ages... word of mouth is so important. It would be nice to have a feature to write a review on the Kindle as well, and post a link to that review via Twitter. If you think about it, Amazon already has a 'built-in' network effect -- all of its reviews -- which it could tap to really make social sharing meaningful.

Perhaps this area is where Barnes & Noble can put some runway between the Nook and Kindle. it's unlikely the Nook has this kind of sharing feature built-in, but by it running Android, a Twitter client on the color touchscreen would be close at hand for the dev community.

It's yet to be seen whether BN encourages / discourages this kind of development on the platform, and whether people will have to hack / "jailbreak" the device to get there... but I think the HW platform itself will leave the Kindle in the dust. I am actually curious whether this will matter - the network effect of Amazon will be tough to beat.

Re: Why is the Kindle so anti-social?

jonsteinberg — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:53:27 -0000

Completely agree...bizarre they have no social sharing functions. I called for kindle hacking a while back:
http://jonsteinberg.tumblr....