Amazon has this new feature called aStore. I can sorta see the connection between the initial "a" and the other vowels that have risen beyond their importance (I'm looking at you, "i", but not so much you, "e"), but the only other too words I know that use an "a" like that are a-hole and A-Rod (so, pretty much the same thing, I think). That's what I think about with aStore.
Still, I tried it out. They said it would be quick and easy. In two minutes I had a nice aStore for The Perl Review. That quick and easy bit is directly related to the limit of nine items in a store. My descriptions for each item show up right under it, so I guess that is kinda nice.
Even though it's really quick to set up, I'm disappointed. I've grown so used to Netflix's tricky mouseover pop-up thing that I sit there for several seconds wondering why my book info isn't coming up in a Netflix-style speech bubble. All of the links still go back into the main Amazon eThing. Where's the "Buy me right now" buttons?
It's only a beta, so maybe it will get better. What I'd really like however, is a way to do the same thing but not tie it to any particular store. That is, a particular reader of my website can set a preference for their online bookseller and the link magically do the right thing by them.
