I missed the release of Amazon Windowshop about a month ago, but a search shows that there was not a lot of posts about it. Shockingly enough, I saw a note from Mona about it. She also has a quick post on it at her blog. Mona’s reaction can be summarized in one word, WOW. In all honesty, I absolutely agree with her. Windowshop shows you the recent releases for video games, music and books along with various categories for each. The basic idea seems to be to promote new releases every Tuesday.

What I Like

The information being presented is OK, as I am not sure how many people need to know what is being released every week. However, the presentation is amazing. Generally, I hate flash-based sites because it is normally overkill for displaying a menu or something equally silly. Amazon, took a different approach and created an “immersive experience” that you can navigate using your keyboard.

The navigation is fast and simple. Amazon could be onto something interesting here. If they integrate this with their recommendation system and a user’s profile, you could have a very cool way to view releases you would be interested in. This would be way better than the current recommendations newsletter they have now.

WARNING: Windowshop is addicting and you can lose an hour playing with it. Please do not blame me for any productivity losses.