I’ve just discovered Zoomii, the “real” online bookstore, and I can say that I’m fascinated. Zoomii allows you to browse the Amazon book collection like in a real bookstore i.e. “physically” classified by category on different shelves. Clicking on a cover pops up an ajaxified window with detailed information on the book (as provided by Amazon.)
The beauty of Zoomii is that it is just a novel frontend to Amazon. When you click on the “Checkout” button, the actual credit-card transaction takes places on Amazon’s website. According to me, this is the killer feature that will drive the masses to Zoomii.
One issue is that the Zoomii cart is not the same as the Amazon cart. More precisely, adding a book using Zoomii does not populate your normal Amazon cart. Rather, it adds the book to a special Zoomii cart which has to be paid separately. Try clicking on “Checkout” and you’ll understand.
For the more technically oriented, Zoomii uses Linux and Java on the backend and Javascript in the browser. It also uses Amazon S3 (for data storage) and Amazon EC2 (for all image processing I guess.)
Zoomii is in my opinion the kind of web application we’ll all take for granted in 2-3 years. I really need to get into that kind of thing before I’m labelled as being completely outdated. What is positive though is that Zoomii has been built by one person only, Chris Thiessen. There is some hope.
To be complete, I have to say that Zoomii makes its money through the Amazon Associates program. Each time one buys a book through Zoomii, Chris gets some money. Personally, I have no problem whatsoever with this economic model. In fact, this is also something that we all need to become accustomed to because this is how the (financial) world will work in the future.
Try Zoomii! I’m sure you’ll love it. I do.
Zoomii uses a Google-maps like navigation system! The books are labeled with coordinates & rendered accordingly! Interesting… :P
I like the concept. Reminds you of a library! :)
played with it for some time, the search isn’t as accurate as that in amazon. had some problems when i tried searching “c++ ” and c#.
2 ‘nice’ features of amazon are missing the “Better Together” and “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”
besides that i think Zoomii is interesting and its much more faster than amazon i also like the way the Categories are arranged.. too good
else thanks for sharing Zoomii with us :P
Yeah.
What’s nice with Zoomii is that you can find interesting books very quickly. I also like the way the books are arranged on the shelves i.e. by author instead of being sorted by popularity. This has allowed me to discover some books that I don’t believe I would have come across using the “real” Amazon…
thanks for sharing that link, and damned you, coz now i’ll have to spend a bucks.. since i found those http://zoomii.com/#search=,asimov
Hi!
thnx 4 d link, especially for book lovers :) I know where i will be spending my free hours now!
Thnx again for sharing it!
the google map concept is real cool but i find the loading times a bit tedious! its a refreshing change anywayz! maybe wiv a higher bandwidth i’d enjoy surfing thru it!
Visited the site and indeed very impressive.
too good…Thnx for the link
Isn’t it? Zoomii rocks :-)