Kindle News: Goodreads acquisition, background + interviews. Cloud Reader for Web.

AMAZON'S ACQUISITION OF GOODREADS

When the news hit, The Kindle Chronicles podcast and blog by Len Edgerly posted an interesting story on it right away giving some of the background of Goodreads.


Otis Chandler's announcement for Goodreads and comments from their user base
Goodreads' own announcement and comments from their audience is of course a key read.

  Another essential read is ' "First do no harm:" My interview with Amazon and Goodreads on the future of Goodreads ' by Laura Hazard Owen for paidContent.

One essential point made in the interviews:

' ...[Amazon's] Grandinetti says Goodreads will be an independent subsidiary of Amazon, like Zappos or IMDB. The site will remain based in San Francisco. Chandler remains CEO, reporting to Grandinetti.  Chandler said that Goodreads’ entire team is staying on (and that the company is hiring). To the question of a redesign, he said there is “nothing specific to mention in relation to the acquisition.”'

With regard to a merging of Amazon reader reviews and Goodreads' reviews, Russ Grandinetti [RG] says he thinks there aren't any "specific plans to do that at this time" and that "Our mentality here is to first do no harm, and make sure that if we’re going to do integrations, users genuinely find it to be a big benefit.”

I've liked that I'm never particularly aware that Amazon has done anything to stifle IMDB, Zappos, or DPreview (cameras) insofar as feeling that editorial control or operating styles have been affected in any bad way with these sites that I've enjoyed for some time.

While Chandler [OC] felt that links to other retailers like Barnes & Noble and Indiebound might be retained "if users really want those links," I think that's highly unlikely!, even for books Amazon doesn't have, as they would probably not want a wholly-owned subsidiary to drive traffic to the another store like B&N, which sells the same mainstream books.

A benefit for Goodreads customers, OC said, was the ability to bring a book "into Goodreads and enabling people to just start reading right there from the Kindle Cloud Reader.  We’ve never had a good book preview feature.”

RG said that the international aspect for both Goodreaders and Amazon are "an area of opportunity for both of us to work on."

OC mentioned that, re the public API or applications interface, that "we're not going to shut [the Kobo feed] off."

There's a lot more from the interviews of course, at paidContent's site, so go there to read the rest of it and the comments.

If after reading at the sites linked above, you want to read more reactions to this merging, see this set of news results.


Earlier articles explaining Cloud Reader
. Kindle Cloud Reader arrives
. Reactions to Kindle Cloud Reader

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Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.

  NOTES on newer Kindles.

US: Updated Kindle Fire 2 Basic  7" tablet - $159 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $269/$299 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $399/$499 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $179/$199 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free slow web Kindle DX - $379 $299 Discontinued

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169 Kindle Fire 2, UK -  £129 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199 Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$ Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $89 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $139 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $199

*OTHER International* Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $199 France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Tienda Kindle Brazil - Amazon Brazil China - Amazon China Japan - Amazon Japan

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Amazon was ready for Apple's No-Buy-Here. Kindle Cloud Reader arrives. - UPDATE

AMAZON KINDLE CLOUD READER BEATS APPLE RESTRICTIONS

That was Electricpig's headline last night, which was to the point.

Kindle for Web to the Rescue
Should Kindle Cloud Reader be sporting a cape?  For now, it can fly only in Google Chrome browser and in Safari, but it's very slick, not faster than a speeding bullet but pretty smooth.  All my book covers showed up instantly and I could choose to download any to read offline instead of reading them online from the 'cloud.'

 If you're on Windows and don't have the Chrome browser yet (or if you're on a Mac and want to try Chrome), download it here and then browse to your CloudReader (at read.amazon.com).

On February 24, this year, while the e-reader world worried over Apple's ax falling on rival ebookstore apps, I wrote "Why Kindle books will be readable & sync'd on Apple devices no matter what" -- and the killer reason was Amazon's work on Kindle for Web, which Amazon demo'd December 7, promising that the ability to read full books was coming soon.   What it touted:

' Kindle books can be read ... anywhere you have a web browser.  Your reading library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights are always available to you no matter where you bought your Kindle books or how you choose to read them. '

The Home page of the live Cloud Reader (formerly known as Kindle for Web), which is accessed via Chrome or Safari (the latter, for the iPad) has the Kindle Store icon at the right top.  Try getting rid of THAT Buy Button, Apple :-)

The Kindle Cloud Reader is just another tab on the browser, so when I go somewhere else on it (to the touch-optimized Kindle Store, for one thing), I have to remember to go 'back' on the browser to the Cloud Reader's "Kindle" home page, called "Cloud."  It's not separate as the other Kindle apps are.

Also, this will be an additional "device" when you do the initial setup (in that most books can be read on up to 6 devices on your account (publisher decides how many) though your account may have many more devices than that).

There are a zillion articles on this quietly released feature already.  Electricpig's points out immediately that

' Amazon has quietly outed a way to get round Apple’s restrictions on iOS in-app purchases: the Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader.  We thought Amazon had simply acquiesced to Apple when it killed the store link in its Kindle iPhone and iPad apps but it had a Plan B in the works.

 The Kindle Cloud Reader is a totally web-based version of the eBook reader app that works with Chrome and Safari and comes optimised for the iPad.  The iPhone isn’t supported yet but that can only be a matter of time. '

 They said it "works like a charm.  The ability to switch between the Kindle Store and your library on the iPad is also a treat.

TechCrunch points out that Amazon hasn't said anything about it yet but it's already live.  I didn't know about it but received an alert from Corneliu Dascalu while I was browsing Twitter. (Thanks!)

So it's ready for PCs, Macs, Linux and Chromebooks (not Android yet, but Buy Buttons work on the Android).  TechCrunch's MG Siegler adds that though the iPad is very much supported :-), the iPhone currently is not, so for now, keep using the Kindle for iPhone.

  Since Cloud Reader is optimized for the iPad, it feels, to Siegler, like a native app though it's not, and you can (somewhat slowly with a whirling timer) "swipe back and forth to move between pages."  Since you can read from the cloud or instead read a downloaded book offline "thanks to the magic of HTML 5 (or a Chrome browser extension), it looks and works great," Siegel says.  "It's ready to go and it's very good."

Reaction overall, in a quick browse of news stories, is very favorable.  I'm enjoying reader comments too.

Gadget Lab's Charlie Sorrel opens his story with

' Angry and outraged that Apple forced Amazon to pull the link to the Kindle e-book store from within its Kindle iOS app?  So was Amazon, but instead of just sitting and whining about it like you and me, Amazon decided to do something.  Behold, the Kindle Cloud Reader, a web app that behaves just like a slightly slow native app. '

He considers it 'clunkier' than a regular Kindle app but "sleeker than some actual hardware e-readers.

And here's some advice -- "long press a book cover thumbnail to save" -- plus the info that the app automatically caches any book you're reading, for a smoother experience.

  You can't search within a book, but you can use the browser 'Find' to do that, for now.  However, the Chrome browser gives you the number of Finds and then you have to next-page until you come across them in yellow or orange.  It doesn't go directly to the words.  No notes or highlights can be created, but you can see the ones you've done, by clicking on the right-hand column header-icon that toggles the display of annotations.

  Going back to my Cloud Reader's Library, I went to see the two books I'd downloaded and got a spinning wheel in the center of the browser that might have continued until the end of time, it seemed, but pressing the Refresh icon at the upper left fixed that.

Sorrel adds that a request for a sample gets you one loaded up right there in the store area and looks like the regular reader but you have to read it then and there (which I don't think I mind) but the downside is you can't choose to send it to your library to read later.

Google 'cloud reader' to see much more on this.


UPDATE - Since Kindle Cloud Reader doesn't have a dictionary yet, here's a reminder that Windows users can install a great little free dictionary, WordWeb.  Here's what you get:

FREE VERSION
The comprehensive English thesaurus and dictionary includes:
Definitions and synonyms
Proper nouns
Related words
5000 audio pronunciations
150 000 root words
220 000 word senses
Fixed web reference tabs

See full details in the blog article from May 3, 2010.

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For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  June  July  Aug 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite



Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!