Amazon Launches Kindle for the Web

Amazon on Tuesday announced a new feature that will allow users to access e-books through the browser without having to download the content.
"Kindle for the Web" will also allow Web site owners or bloggers to embed a portion of an e-book into their sites as part of the Amazon Associates Program. If a user clicks through that embedded content and purchases the e-book or physical book, the Web site owner will earn a referral fee.
The feature will allow customers to read the first chapter of a selected book for free, right on the screen. To access, click the "Read first chapter FREE" button on a book product page on Amazon.com or participating Web sites. The first chapter will then open within the Web page. Customers can alter font size, line spacing, and background color. They can also share content with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail.
"With Kindle for the Web, it's easier than ever for customers to sample Kindle books – there's no downloading or installation required," Dorothy Nicholls, director of Amazon Kindle, said in a statement. "Kindle for the Web is also a great way for bloggers and authors to promote books on their Web sites by letting visitors read a chapter without leaving their site."
Amazon said "Kindle for the Web" will eventually be optimized for mobile browsers and include additional features.

Facebook Quashes Mobile Phone Rumors

Facebook said on Monday it is not building a mobile phone, dismissing a TechCrunch story that it is working on software for a device from a hardware manufacturer.

"The story is not accurate," according to a company statement. "Our approach has always been to make all phones and apps more social, not build a phone. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a "Facebook Phone" (even internally) because that's such an attractive sound bite, but our real strategy is to make everything social and not build one phone or integration."

TechCrunch reported that Facebook wanted more control over a phone's operating system in order to more deeply integrate with phone features such as contact lists.

Facebook said it is also working on enabling full support on mobiles for its Connect feature, which allows people to use their Facebook identification credentials to log into other Web-based applications.

"Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this," according to Facebook. "For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called 'Facebook Phone')."

But Facebook did describe its mobile work, such as an HTML5 version of the site. HTML5 is the latest specification for the Web's mother tongue that enables new graphic features and the ability to create snappy Web applications with desktop-like performance, among others.

Yahoo To Refresh Mail, Search

The web portal hopes to reinvigorate the brand by rolling out new versions of its services, including Yahoo Mail, search, instant messaging, mobile apps and content properties, starting in the fall.

Yahoo, which has seen its relevance as a web portal diminish with the rise of social networks, is hoping to make a comeback through a major refresh of its services, starting with online search and email.
The company on Thursday launched a product roadmap that will involve more frequent updates of all its services starting in the fall. Besides search and email, Yahoo services include instant messaging, applications for mobile devices and televisions and a number of content properties, such as news, finance and sports.

A new version of Yahoo Mail will be available in beta in a few weeks. Yahoo claims to have 281 million users of the service. Among the improvements is a "cleaner, sleeker" interface for easier use of features and navigation through the inbox, Yahoo said. The same look-and-feel of the interface will be available on a PC browser, smartphone, tablet and other mobile devices. Yahoo also is claiming to have implemented technology within its data centers to make Yahoo Mail faster. In a nod to the most popular social networks, users will be able to view and update Facebook and Twitter pages from the inbox. Other features include a new version of Yahoo's instant messaging service and a refurbished inbox search page.

With search, Yahoo is focusing on the client, offering "more visually compelling search results that let you discover information and be entertained all on one search result page," the company said. Under the hood, Yahoo Search is powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine. As of the last week of August, when Bing started powering Yahoo Search, Microsoft's search engine handled nearly a quarter of all U.S. Web searches, according to Internet metrics firm Experian Hitwise. Google continued to dominate the market with nearly a 72% share.