http://www.windowshop.com/

It’s been released for over a month, but an interesting move into a more immersive online shopping experience. Amazon WindowShop has a nice browsing feel and the access to quick-loading video and voice-over reading of book descriptions certainly adds a deeper multimedia experience.

It is not as fun of an experience as PicLens/Cool Iris (which I love to play with) – http://www.cooliris.com/ – Google Images search that flick pans, zoom-scrolls, and auto uploads on the fly, but similar on the surface-level intent.

But, the drawback for me is the need to view the Popular Releases. This is essentially the Amazon homepage brought to life in a way – which has its merit – but that is the same page in which I only hone in to see the Search field and move on to my own interests, not Amazon’s promotions.

The amazing value to Amazon is its Long Tail access. i can dig deep into what I’m interested in and find virtually anything I want in my own particular media niche. This current Beta version of Amazon WindowShop looses the primary value I find in Amazon.

Until it lets me select a genre, or specific search to view, rate the things I’m interested in and shows me similar type products, I won’t be using Amazon WindowShop for more than an interesting jaunt into an interface experience (which isn’t a totally bad thing – just a very low frequency of use).

It’s a good idea in a Beta version, we’ll see how the transform and what they roll out in next updates.