If Google Maps had built a bookstore – Zoomii
We are always on the lookout for new user interface paradigms – remember that jaw-dropping moment when you first clicked-and-dragged a Google map.
I had a similar experience when visiting zoomii.com. Basically a cool storefront for Amazon books, this exercise in creating a virtual bookstore where the books are displayed on [virtual] real shelves for you to browse. By using the mouse to zoom in and out, and drag left, right, up & down, in a way that feels natural it is a totally different experience.
On arrival on the site you are presented with a video to watch, it’s only short so take a look to see how to make the most of your first experience at Zoomii Books.
From the Amazon Web Services blog, we are told that Zoomii has been developed and runs on Amazon EC2 virtual computer instances and uses Amazon’s S3 storage. So not only a innovative way of browsing through books, but a great example of cloud computing.
Thinks… If they can build this to front the web services that Amazon provide, how easy would it be to produce a library version – all we would need is book jackets for all our stock.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
[...] interesting find today through one of the blogs I subscribe to (panlibus) – Zoomii. Zoomii is the product of Chris Thiessen in Canada. It presents the user with a [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
[...] dieser Ansatz auch zum navigieren in Katalogen von Öffentlichen Bibliotheken interessant. [via Panlibus] Tags:Uncategorized, Amazon, API, Katalog 2.0, Panlibus, [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 2:16 am
[...] other book-related news, Panlibus points to Zoomii, a great visualization for Amazon’s bookstore where books are placed in [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I remember the feeling I had when I first click-and-dragged a Google map: motion sickness. Those “slippy maps” are horrible if your hand shakes. They also use the CPU (so burn up battery power) much faster than flip maps.
In face of a growing wave of “make it simpler and sell more” evidence, there’ll be a place for new tech-tart sites, but I pity the crowd of imitator shops that are going to be inspired by this and perish in the marketplace.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
[...] points to a cool tool called “Zoomii”, which is basically a virtual bookstore for [...]
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:22 am
[...] other book-related news, Panlibus points to Zoomii, a great visualization for Amazon’s bookstore where books are placed in [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
[...] Wallis sava bloga ierakstā If Google Maps had built a bookstore – Zoomii ir izteicis interesantu domu par zoomii.com līdzīga interfeisa pielietojumu – šādā veidā [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] other book-related news, Panlibus points to Zoomii, a great visualization for Amazon’s bookstore where books are placed in [...]