Kindle Comes to the Web

Amazon has announced another expansion of its Kindle platform with the Kindle for the Web beta, which allows book samples and snippets to be read directly from a browser.

The new version is embeddable across the web, and also acts as another revenue stream for members of the Amazon Associates Program. Online publishers who refer people back Amazon through an embed of Kindle for the Web will be entitled to a percentage of any revenue generated off of the referral.

Although it is limited solely to first chapter previews, Kindle for the Web functions largely like other iterations of the Kindle platform, as seen here:

We’re a bit surprised that Kindle for the Web did not come sooner. In addition to its popular Kindle e-reader, the world’s largest online retailer currently has supporting apps for every major mobile platform, as well as desktop applications for PC and OS X.

Although the web service supports only book previews, it is clearly extendable to full titles. The question is how long Amazon will wait before flipping the switch to allow full content access through Kindle for the Web.

One might argue that this sort of availability would cannibalize sales of physical Kindle devices, but the reality is that Amazon makes considerably more money on e-books than it does on Kindle e-readers. Any extension of the Kindle platform is a valuable step for Amazon to take.

[via mashable]

Posted in: Kindle