Amazon has shown in the past few weeks that it is ready to take Kindle to the next level. Not only have it introduced a great device in Kindle 2.0, it has brought Kindle to the iPhone community. But what Amazon not tapped into yet is the power of the social media. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter are growing fast, and there are tons of people whom Amazon can reach out to in these communities. As I have mentioned before, taking Kindle social is the best way to take the platform to the very next level. It’s true that the Kindle software may not be ready to take on both Twitter and Facebook at this point, but that doesn’t mean Amazon shouldn’t try.
Facebook Connect is an innovative service by the guys behind Facebook that makes it possible for publishers and application developers to connect with their audience and make their works viral. Facebook Connect has just been released for the iPhone platform, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how it can help Amazon grow the Kindle community.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could connect your Kindle to your Facebook account (just like you do with your Amazon account?). I bet it would be nice if you could tell your Facebook followers what you are reading on your Kindle and even share a few snippets with them. How about using the Facebook platform to develop a reading list for yourself based on what your friends are reading/recommending? How about sharing ideas with other Facebook users who are reading the same work as you are on their Kindles?
The opportunities are limitless here. Will we see Kindle on Facebook? Absolutely. The Kindle software is still primitive at best. Amazon may need to make drastic changes to Kindle software to make it social-media ready. But at this point it look inevitable that we will see Amazon get involved with Facebook and Twitter (and other social media sites) soon. How soon? That’s the million dollar question.
Your take: would you like to see Amazon connect Kindle with Facebook and Twitter?
You May Also Be Interested In:
- Kindle Repairs: Where do you go?
- 50 Best Kindle DX Accessories
- 70 Best Kindle 2 Accessories
- Rumor Alert: Is Kindle 3.0's Release Imminent?
- 5 Must Have Accessories for B&N Nook
- How To Upload e-Books to iPad: ReaddleDocs
- Kindle 3 Rumors Heat Up
8 Responses to “Facebook On Kindle?”
It is an interesting idea.
Amazon already owns Shelfari a social network for book lovers.
I have not seen much evidence that people have found a way to use social networks to increase sales. It would just be another nice feature.
Yes amazon should work on social networking integration on the kindle platform, but i don’t think it is a big deal and can wait. I would rather have them do it right the first time.
Shelfari? Aren’t we tired of all these companies creating their own social networks? Facebook might help Amazon sell more because they got millions of folks. Shelfari is not that popular. Not in the same class as Facebook or MySpace.
My point is that people have not had much luck monetizing social networks and I doubt Amazon would do much better.
It is something i think they should add to the kindle. I would love to be able to see what my friends are reading and recent reviews they have posted. I just don’t see it being a huge feature that is going to sell more kindles.
i connected to fb from mine before and now it wont lrt me??
What error message do you get?
Why not just improve or write a special “kindle” version of the facebook interface so we can log on from our kindles? I tried logging on once and while I was able to do it, it was so slow it wasn’t worth the effort.
I’m typing this on my kindle right now. My problem is any time I do anything on Facebook, it always brings me back to the log in page so it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Hopefully they will figure out how to fix this soon.
I know what you mean. I mean I have tweeted and done a lot of things from my Kindle but it’s far from perfect. In the age of iPhone and Droids of this world, you’d expect Amazon to add real web functionality to Kindle soon. But here is the catch: Amazon’s free wireless service may not be sustainable.