March 9th, 2007
How Social is Amazon?
by Joshua Porter | 
49 Comments | shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/582
Pretty social, it seems. Here is a slide from the social design talk I’ve been giving lately:
(btw: this full-page screenshot taken with Paparazzi! on the Mac)
With lots of sites “going social” nowadays, Amazon and their amazing array of social features is often overlooked. But the amount of social content on Amazon that is provided and leveraged is astounding…especially for an e-commerce company. If Amazon didn’t have this incredible amount of social commentary, their site would only be a shell of what it is today.
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1. Henrik Lied 7:44am, Fri 9th, 2007
Not bad. The only thing their missing is a messaging feature.
2. pauric 8:34am, Fri 9th, 2007
the beauty of your insight is it demonstrates activity first features second.
People shop and discuss purchasing decisions in the real world. Amazon is enabling that and enhancing the discussion with the wide-band of the internet.
Maybe this could be labeled as a socially supported design. Where ’social’ is a supporting feature of the primary activity.
3. huphtur 10:06am, Fri 9th, 2007
(Screengrab! is a sweet FF Add-on that can do the same kind of screenshot)
4. Josh 12:26pm, Fri 9th, 2007
Amazon has definitely always led the way when it comes to pushing new ground for an ecommerce company.
One caveat: I would actually classify “Product ratings” and “Rate this item” as the same feature… so you’ve listed it twice.
5. Josh 1:05pm, Fri 9th, 2007
Yes, Josh…they are the same. I hesitated about that…but ended up listing it twice because they show up in separate parts of the page…
6. Boris 8:47am, Sun 11th, 2007
Good lord… I started writing the same blog post 6 months ago! funny.
You know why everyone overlook Amazon’s “social” tools? They are very poorly presented/integrated/designed. I took people through an Amazon page like this several times and each time I got “gee, I never noticed that…”
Also questionable is how useful most of these featrue are.
7. Chosson 2:01am, Mon 12th, 2007
They are social, but still not all features are usable: “people, who viewed this … end up buying this”, “but with 1 click” are still confusing…
8. Nadav 5:15pm, Fri 16th, 2007
The real story here is how long that page is!
9. Web Design Wales 6:31am, Mon 19th, 2007
The only one I use regularly is the ‘customer reviews’ one.
10. wenjun 10:55pm, Sun 25th, 2007
amazon does its job very well. that’s not just because it offers so many social features, but the way amazon display and arrange those features.
my point is, adding more fetures to your product is very easily, making your visitors feel easy to face so many features that’s a tough job.
11. Pozycjonowanie 8:23pm, Fri 6th, 2007
Amazon has definitely always led the way when it comes to pushing new ground for an ecommerce company.
12. Dan 4:36pm, Sat 7th, 2007
you’re right, thats the point! they are all easy to understand and use. some are more, some are less helpful, but I think there is no useless web 2.0 thing on the site…
13. Mary 4:03pm, Sat 14th, 2007
Amazon is closer to society that many other e-commerce companies.
14. Mark E 11:01am, Wed 2nd, 2007
Another top post, Josh.
Really enjoying what you do here.
Not a techie myself but am fascinated by your “social design” thing.
Keep up the good work.
15. Jacek 3:16am, Fri 8th, 2007
amazon does its job very well. that’s not just because it offers so many social features, but the way amazon display and arrange those features.
my point is, adding more fetures to your product is very easily, making your visitors feel easy to face so many features that’s a tough job.
16. myspace proxy 12:00pm, Tue 26th, 2007
Not bad. The only thing their missing is a messaging feature.
17. conto corrente 5:58am, Thu 28th, 2007
In many ways, Amazon is really a social network rather than an ecommerce store.
18. Księgowość 7:05am, Tue 3rd, 2007
Yeah, they’re really caring about their customers – that’s like most important in the retail business.
19. Księgowość 7:05am, Tue 3rd, 2007
Yeah, they’re really caring about their customers – that’s like the most important in the retail business.
20. Craig 8:02am, Fri 6th, 2007
Another nice post, Josh. Not a techie myself but am fascinated by your “social design” thing. Keep up the good work – waiting for more !
21. Pędzle 5:10pm, Fri 6th, 2007
Amazon has definitely always led the way when it comes to pushing new ground for an ecommerce company.
22. depilacja laserowa 4:31am, Sat 7th, 2007
Amazon.com contributes to increase iPod popularity:) this is social:)
23. Vitaliy 12:11pm, Sat 7th, 2007
Very nice post and very interesting questions:) I don’t think that Amazon is really a social network because they only want to make money. Make money is not really social, anyway.
24. sohbet 11:35am, Sat 4th, 2007
Not bad. The only thing their missing is a messaging feature.
25. João Pereira 6:04pm, Sat 11th, 2007
Amazon has great social features but the “Amazon price” is probably the best social feature. I guess everybody search a product on diferent websites but we by it in the place that is more favorable for us at the moment, whish means mostly, lesser price and delivering spead. Shure I do use some of the social features even when i by the product elsewhere.
26. TIMBaER 9:05am, Fri 17th, 2007
The real good story here is how long that page is!
Thanks
27. Dominik 6:16am, Tue 16th, 2007
great site…but some mistakes! Sunny regards
28. sohbet odalari 8:51am, Tue 16th, 2007
hımmmm very good sites
29. Hörmann 10:53pm, Tue 4th, 2007
Another nice post, Josh. Not a techie myself but am fascinated by your “social design” thing. Keep up the good work – waiting for more !
30. iyinet webmaster forumu 2008 seo yarışması 12:48pm, Wed 6th, 2008
Very Good
31. iyinet webmaster forumu 2008 seo yarışması 9:51am, Fri 8th, 2008
good nice