The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo • Hacker News Board

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#31

Post by bvm » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 2:37 PM UTC

zoidb wrote: post #2

I wonder what conversation at bloomberg resulted in adding all of those extremely distracting (and annoying) animated gifs..

Bloomberg has really gone off the deep end of the design pool. It seemed to start with those somewhat janky, but pretty nice zero-padded headline overlays on the pics, and culminated in this: http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-design/ which...well.

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#32

Post by joncrocks » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 2:38 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #5

"An e-commerce company wouldn’t seem like an obvious leader in [augmented reality]." Amazing that even today articles are still calling Amazon an e-commerce company. I wonder if this is an image Amazon actively cultivates or if it's just consistently lazy reporting?

They're an online bookstore right?

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#33

Post by AlwaysRock » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 2:45 PM UTC

igvadaimon wrote: post #3

zoidb wrote: post #2

I wonder what conversation at bloomberg resulted in adding all of those extremely distracting (and annoying) animated gifs..

I found them wonderful.

Yeah I enjoy all the stuff they have done to make the pages interesting. When I just need to focus on the text I use Speedy Readie.

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#34

Post by turaw » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 2:49 PM UTC

zoidb wrote: post #2

I wonder what conversation at bloomberg resulted in adding all of those extremely distracting (and annoying) animated gifs..

I've been using Animation Policy [1] to only play gifs through once and it's worked pretty well so far (in contradiction to the reviews on the chrome store).

edit: Except, apparently, on that site.

[1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/animation-policy/n...

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#35

Post by sokoloff » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 2:53 PM UTC

narrowrail wrote: post #28

apaprocki wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feel bad -- we at Bloomberg always get classed a "media" company when the media properties came about a decade after the software (& hardware). It's just easier to say because it fits better into public expectation. To most people Amazon is e-commerce because nearly everyone buys things from them online or via mobile apps.

If this sub-thread were not about being specific in one's characterization, I would not point this out, but: > online or via mobile apps As far as I'm concerned 'mobile apps' operate 'online' and it isn't clear the distinction you are making. Is it common to refer to 'online' as via a web interface (ports 80/443)?

I think that's the distinction and I think it's a valid one. My experience on Aliexpress, Amazon, and Ebay (to name the 3 I use the most) is that the web and mobile interfaces and use cases are still quite distinct from each other. On Aliexpress, I sometimes use the mobile to checkout for the explicit discount, but never search from mobile. On Ebay, I respond to bidding alerts on mobile, but don't initiate transactions/searches on mobile. On Amazon, I basically never use their mobile app (and usually use google to search Amazon's [web]site).

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#36

Post by dbbk » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 2:57 PM UTC

post_break wrote: post #13

I really want an Echo, I just can't justify the cost. And the cheaper options don't have the listening mode which nerfs the whole appeal.

The "cheaper option" is the Amazon Tap, a different product. All of the Echo products have constant listening (Echo and Echo Dot).

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#37

Post by Merad » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 3:02 PM UTC

zoidb wrote: post #2

I wonder what conversation at bloomberg resulted in adding all of those extremely distracting (and annoying) animated gifs..

Annoying gifs seems to be the popular thing at the moment. I've backed several Kickstarter campaigns recently and every single one of them fills their status update posts with stupid gifs.

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#38

Post by ceagrass » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 3:02 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #19

daveguy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap that is annoying. Is there a way to pause all animated gifs in chrome? Congratulations, Bloomberg, you captured the essence of a Geocities site. This has to be a not so subtle graphic design joke.

I opened up Chrome Developer tools and added img { display: none } which hides everything but the top banner, which you can scroll past ;)

Good call.

Add in a * { background: none !important } and you're golden.

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#39

Post by tonyedgecombe » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 3:02 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #5

"An e-commerce company wouldn’t seem like an obvious leader in [augmented reality]." Amazing that even today articles are still calling Amazon an e-commerce company. I wonder if this is an image Amazon actively cultivates or if it's just consistently lazy reporting?

I just see them as a distribution company, they have the culture of a distribution company right to their core.

Re: The Real Story of How Amazon Built the Echo

#40

Post by suprfsat » Tue, Apr 19, 2016, 3:10 PM UTC

Merad wrote: post #37

zoidb wrote: post #2

I wonder what conversation at bloomberg resulted in adding all of those extremely distracting (and annoying) animated gifs..

Annoying gifs seems to be the popular thing at the moment. I've backed several Kickstarter campaigns recently and every single one of them fills their status update posts with stupid gifs.

I wonder what would happen if you stopped paying for gifs?