Charles on… anything that comes along

In The Independent this week, I’ve written about Amazon’s tenth birthday.

While the NYT preferred to concentrate on the money side (which is understandable), I’ve looked at the impact Amazon.com had on web use.

Here’s the things to be thankful for: they had terrific usability right from the start. Imagine if they’d got it wrong. Bezos’s breakthrough (I argue) wasn’t selling books online - anyone could have thought of that. It was having great, streamlined design at a time when “online shopping” was still an oxymoron.

And some sites still haven’t learned the lessons that Amazon laid down even then. To see what I mean, try going to Amazon.co.uk and Interflora.co.uk. Visit both as an *unregistered* user - don’t sign in to either if you’re a member. Try keeping two windows side by side, so you can compare the process.

Now try to buy something. Just click and keep trying to proceed to the checkout. At Interflora, you’ll hit what seems like a roadblock; at precisely the same point, Amazon gives you an easy passage towards spending your money.

(Whether or not you now choose to actually spend your money is up to you, of course, though I can recommend this one - as seen on TV.

Of course Amazon hasn’t paid any dividends, so its price/earnings ratio is literally infinite, though you could calculate how much its EPS is, and make a guess at the PER. Even so, buying the stock is only for those looking to trade it.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• The long tail, best gadgets for Xmas, and how a Canadian island may foretell the fate of the Amazon (1 December 2004; score: 56.63%)
• Done a book review on Amazon? .... oh, so you have (18 November 2005; score: 51.96%)
• That "independent investigation" into MPs' expenses? It's already going on (21 May 2009; score: 45.84%)

At The Register I’ve written about how Dell has shut its customer care support forums (in the US; the UK site doesn’t have them). One must surmise - though one has to guess here, because Dell hasn’t come up with a formal statement of any sort despite my request, let’s see, TWO days ago - that it’s because people were complaining too much.

The pointer came from Ed Bott, but once you start searching you’ll find that there are complaints about this, and Dell support, and problems with the Dimenson 4600 power supply, all over the web.

Dell might have been the first to sell computers efficiently over the web, and for all I know to have customer support forums. But it doesn’t seem to be showing the right technique for handling its paymasters’ ire, either through those channels or the PR ones.

Meanwhile the stream of press releases channelled through GCI but originating in the US (you can tell, because they are so dull, that they’re from the US) continues, as if that might drown out the trouble. Sorry, but no.

Update 1155: I’ve had an email from GCI saying Dell constantly evaluates the effectiveness of our support tools and determined that order support and related questions are best addressed through FAQs, and chat. Which I don’t think quite answers the “why” question. This could go on for a while..

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Dell explains why it killed customer forums (sort of); and that Shuttle delay in full (14 July 2005; score: 164.49%)
• Michael Dell re Blu-Ray, and disable those iPod nano scratches! (4 October 2005; score: 82.53%)
• At LAST! Dell gets its own rumours site (4 February 2005; score: 53.22%)