Amazon launches WindowShop: A 3D shopping experience

WindowShop is a new content-viewing layer for Amazon.com. If you've ever used Cooliris' PicLens before, you'll feel right at home, as WindowShop turns Amazon's selection of online goods into a giant wall, which you can scroll back and forth across, and zoom in and out of to find things to buy. The tool was built by Amazon and runs entirely off its S3 storage service.

Browse the latest and greatest Amazon releases with WindowShop.com. It's pure consumer eye candy.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Within the giant wall of product thumbnails, each of Amazon's sales categories is broken down into interactive tiles which can take up nearly your entire browser window when zoomed. Movies, TV shows, and music begin to play almost immediately, giving you the same preview you'd find on Amazon's product pages (which are just a click away on each item).

We've covered several thumbnail-inspired shopping experiences before (see Zoomii specifically), but this is one of the first that's got speed and first-party support on its side. Amazon is advertising the fact that the music wall will be updated every Tuesday to coincide with new releases. The same goes for movies, TV shows, and books.

I can't say I'm entirely convinced most people are going to use this as opposed to the standard Amazon site when it comes time to find things. It's missing the all-important search, making it more of a content showcase than a replacement for the popular shopping site. However, this new look paves the way for use on set-top boxes and other Web-enabled home entertainment devices like the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

I'll be posting a hands-on demo of what it looks like shortly. In the meantime, simply head over to WindowShop.com to give it a spin. You'll have to have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed to take advantage of it.

Update: As promised, here's a video overview of what you can do with WindowShop. To download the full-quality version, right-click this link and choose "save link as".

[Kien1]

Not sure if I'm crazy or what, but I don't see anything "3-D" about this. Enlarging, zooming, panning, and overlaying isn't quite 3-D.

[Gofer01]

Maybe you need 3D glasses :-)

[Gofer01]

I agree with Ken1.

In my option the little upgrade at Amazon is only a visual tool in selling more products. There?s no new technology that I can see.

What I can see is that Amazon will lose sales from the customers that doesn?t have broadband connections.

[dbres042]

Seems like Amazon is jumping on the bandwagon of GUI improvements which don't really improve the user experience but are flashy and up to par with other flashy interfaces like the iPhone.

I wouldn't pay much attention to this upgrade.

[BrentLamborn]

Right, there is no new technology, and I also wouldn't call it an "upgrade" dbres042, but it is an alternate way to shop. It's simple and you get an instant preview. The domain name is good too.

I'm a Flex developer (which is the the technology being used ) and that application could be written in a week tops - so it's nothing earth shattering as far as technology, just one more interface for shoppers to use.

[hbesh]

Some anecdotes from my user experience review on my blog:

http://www.logblo.com/2008/10/28/AmazonWindowShopCanIReallyShopLikeThis.aspx

The top navigation bar that allows you to navigation left to right between different content and dates is yet to be perfect

Different content is presented in a different color - this is a good cognitive indication, my only concern is that there just too many colors to grasp the difference or even notice it (for example between movies and TV shows).

There is lack of consistency - some categories are monthly and some weekly. This situation create a bit of confusing, as the order of categories is not consistent, and a bit confusing.

I would add some sort of borders between update dates, for example an intuitive way to understand that now i switched between October updates to August updates and so on? this will ad another level of structure.

This experience of easy browsing without using the mouse is good, but there is one little annoying bug here? if you give me the chance not to use the mouse why do you make me press on the ?I? (help) icon to read the help? pressing the letter ?I? should do the trick.

The default way of navigation (zoomed in) in my mind is not the right way, because for someone who didn?t see the feature before, found it difficult to get a good orientation, and it might create a negative first impression for the users.

I think another level of information is missing - short reviews, rating or a reference to information on the site. In my mind i see an option to flip the item picture to see its back side, and in it will appear some additional information on the item.

I find the window shop pretty good compared to many semi-virtual environments I saw in the past. But keep in mind, this can not replace the rest of the shop/site (in this case amazon shop). It is not for no reason that the feature name is ?Window shop?, as this can be used effectively almost only to present new items in a sort of a ?show case?.

[jedmmj11]

you can already do this within cooliris plus you can browse itunes and about ten others.

[Krutikrix]

An Indian portal Buzzar.tv based on Web 2.0 technology, is the first of this kind. The application promises to change the future of online advertising. Having been launched in July, the portal showcases Indian brands and has a cool, exciting interface. Its such a sorry state of affairs in India, that an innovation never gets its recognition. Check out: www.buzzar.tv.