Booksellers compete to replicate browsing experience online
Barnes & Noble Inc.’s bn.com has added book-previewing technology from Zinio LLC that lets consumers see what’s inside a book much as they would in a bookstore. The pages of the online book even flip over as the reader turns from one page to the next.
“We think it’s the best viewing experience on the market and helps people understand what they’re buying, and make them happier using bn.com,” says Len Gilbert, vice president of business development for BarnesandNoble.com Inc., which is No. 33 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
Gilbert noted that other online booksellers have introduced a similar previewing feature, without mentioning names. Among them is Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, whose previewer shows one page at a time. When the viewer clicks the advance arrow the next page appears, but without the feel of the page turning that the Zinio technology offers.
“We show two pages rather than one and you can physically turn the page—even the shadows move as a real page would do,” Gilbert says. Viewers can enlarge pages, search for a term within a book and move a slider at the bottom of the screen to quickly skim the book.
The “see inside” feature is already available on tens of thousands of books sold at bn.com “and we’ll keep adding as we bring in more publishers,” Gilbert says.
Zinio previously has mainly worked with magazine publishers on presenting their products online, a spokeswoman says.
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