Amazon recommended books are getting an upgrade (or a downgrade, depending on your point of view). I was browsing my books’ pages this morning when I saw a little pop up window appear on Shirley Link & The Safe Case‘s product page.
See that window dropping down from the upper right portion of the screen? It’s certainly in your face. At first I thought it might be a recommendation based on an author I follow on Amazon. But I don’t subscribe to his updates.
(Quick aside: Yes, you can follow authors and receive updates about their latest releases. Just visit their author page and look for the “Stay up to date” section on the right side of the page.)
I wonder if it’s a new feature to show Amazon recommended books to readers, or just a trial balloon. Amazon is known for trying new stuff all the time. I hope it’s widespread. And, uh, I hope I can find a way to take advantage of it with my books.
Have you seen this Amazon recommended books feature before?
If yes, how long ago? Do you like it, or is it too aggressive? Let us know in the comments.
If I have seen it, it didn’t register on me as new, and therein lies one issue: Amazon is so constantly trying to hook me from product to product, it is easy to ignore it (though I do use that banner with a whole lot of products, though not so much with books as other stuff). Many of my book searches are done at work, and if I’m not logged in, I wonder if it will display such things.
That’s a very good point. I usually dismiss half of what they do to get my attention, but I’ve never seen something this obvious. It’s basically a pop-up, though it looks nicer and doesn’t appear in the middle of the screen. Of course, every time they do things like this I wonder if they’re getting ready to offer paid spots to authors.