1. Kindle-related content gains unprecedented
prominence on Amazon.com
The day after Thanksgiving in the USA is known as Black Friday. In recent years it has
been the busiest day for retailers since it marks the beginning of shopping for Christmas
presents. Queues on this day are so notorious that in 2008 a Walmart employee was
killed in the stampede.i
This year retailers like Best Buy, Macy‘s and Target even decided to open their stores
at midnight on Black Friday (named this way because retailers supposedly move into
the black and become profitable).ii
Brick-and-mortar stores are getting more aggressive because of the growing popularity
of online shopping where buyers do not need to wait. Amazon is the world‘s biggest e-
commerce website and sells everything from groceries to computing capacity.
The Monday after Black Friday in the US is called Cyber Monday because a lot of people
buy products online from their workplace.iii In 2010 Cyber Monday surpassed Black Friday
as the highest spending day of the year.
The following research will examine the evolution of Amazon‘s homepage around Black
Friday between 2001 and 2011. For the purposes of this study I will use the Internet
Archive‘s Wayback Machine, which gets its content from Alexa, owned by Amazon. The
only year that I could not include in my research was 2002 due to the lack of screenshots
in the Internet Archive.
There are other organizations that crawl the web for the future generations, such as the
Swedish National Library, but the Wayback Machine still offers the largest database.iv
Although there is an uneven representation of different countries in it in favour of the
USA, the Wayback Machine is the best place to start researching the past of major
websites.
It works by crawling URLs visited by users of Alexa‘s toolbar. They are usually submitted
into the archive after 6 months for copyright restrictions. Sometimes because of a
robots.txt file set up by the owner of a website, the Wayback Machine is unable to
archive images and users‘comments.
There are numerous fascinating applications of The Wayback Machine. It can be used to
look for changes in content of a specific URL over time, for example.v
In a 2002 study on the validity of health-related information on the web, researcher
Michael Veronin, claims that 59% of websites that in 1999 provided content about a
specific herbal remedy no longer exist. Veronin suggests that ―… may be that certain
topics (such as herbal remedies) can have periods of enthusiasm by the public then wane

2. — which may be the case with these sites. Perhaps information on more mainstream
topics (such as health risks and smoking) is less vulnerable to attrition.‖vi
By comparing US states websites‘ home pages between 1997-2002 Terry Ryan, Richard
Field and Lorne Olfman found home pages that differed dramatically in 1998 in terms of
navigation have become more similar over timevii. In later years differences in
information density and types of layouts, however, became more common. Their paper is
especially useful because it defines categories of home pages‘ layouts that can be built
upon in following research. They are:
- Long list of text links
- Simple rectangle (―A rectangular shape designed to fit within a browser window
and one or more graphics.‖)
- Short ‗L‘ (―It has a rectangular shape like that of the Simple Rectangle, but can be
somewhat larger and has a clearly defined header bar and left menu bar that are
all one piece.‖)
- Long ‗L‘ (―The type has evolved over the years to become longer; to be denser by
having more links, more images, and more information density on the page; and
to have a more clearly defined ‗L‘ type of header and left menu bar.‖)
- Portal
- Boxes (―It is marked by the division of the home page into discrete square or
rectangular areas.‖)
- Experimental
In this study I have looked for changes in the following list of features:
- When is the first appearance of an advertisement/promotional material?
- What are the changes in the appearance of the search bar?
- What type of links appear and disappear from the home page?
- What type of content/services is featured on the front page?
- How does layout, navigation and information density change?
Amazon has kept its home page almost unchanged since the onset of the 21 st century.
Its layout is still ―Long L‖ with a distinct left bar.
One of the interesting developments in Amazon‘s homepage is the gradual disappearance
of other brands. For example, in 2001 we can see Target‘s logo on amazon.com, but
since at least 2003 it has been gone. Until 2006 Toys‘R‘Us‘ name appeared frequently on
Amazon‘s homepage but after that it disappeared. Furthermore around Thanksgiving day
between 2004-2009 Amazon features a banner that urges people to donate to children in
poor circumstances but since 2010 such campaigns disappear from the front page. There
was even a period in 2003 when Amazon provided a Google search box on its home
page. But it was briefly replaced by Amazon‘s own A9 in 2004, only to be discontinued in
2006.
The number of celebrity endorsements that Amazon used to sell its products on the home
page also decreased. For instance, the Holiday A-list of gifts recommended by celebrities
never appears again after 2003.
Another obvious trend is that since 2007 Black Friday, around when Amazon introduced
Kindle, the precious space on the home page has been almost exclusively reserved for

3. the digital device. In this sense Amazon‘s home page changes from ―What can Amazon
do for you?‖ to ―What can you do for Amazon?‖
Gradually categories like ―Home & garden‖, ―Gourmet food‖ and ―Tools & hardware‖
become less prominent. On the other hand in 2006 ―Electronics & Office‖ becomes known
as ―Computer & Office‖ and a few product categories are merged into ―Consumer
Electronics‖, thus signifying the increasing consumerization of IT. In 2010 for the first
time ―Office‖ is not featured on the home page.
In 2007 Amazon became increasingly digitized following the premiere of Kindle. The
same year ―MP3‖ and ―GPS‖ get their own place in the left column of Amazon‘s home
page. A whole new category ―Digital downloads‖, mostly with content for the Kindle,
becomes prominently featured on the home page. ―Textbooks‖ is the most significant
addition to the ―Books‖ category. On the other hand ―DVD‖ fades completely away. The
website is inaccessible on Black Friday the same year, probably briefly, according to the
Wayback Machine. After all, Kindle started being available in the US just four days before
Black Friday so Amazon rearranged whole categories in promoting its e-reader.
By 2007 labels such as ―Automotive‖, ―Sporting goods‖, ―Jewelry & watches‖, ―Cell
phones & service‖, ―Kitchen & housewares‖ and ―Health & beauty‖ permanently lost
priority to electronics.
In 2008 ―Blu-ray‖ emerges in the left column together with its arch enemy ―Video on
demand‖. ―Consumer Electronics‖ turns into ―Electronics‖.
One year later the leading ―Books‖ category moves ―Newspapers‖ from ―Magazines &
Newspapers‖ to the Kindle‘s new own category of goods and accessories. Just behind
―Books‖ is ―Kindle Books‖. Maybe coincidentally 2009 was one of the worst years for the
US newspapers marking 13 consecutive quarters of declining advertising revenue. The
Kindle category pushes down ―Computer & Office‖ and requires scrolling to be seen.
Although more compact, Amazon‘s 2011 homepage promotes the retailer‘s digital
services even more. For the first time ―Books‖ is not among the top categories. Now
there are ―Unlimited Instant Videos‖, ―MP3s & Cloud player‖, ―Amazon Cloud Drive‖,
―Kindle‖, ―Appstore for Android‖, ―Digital Games & Software‖ and ―Audible Audiobooks‖.
On the right side of the home page there are a few banners promoting digital services
like Amazon‘s Prime and Cloud Player. There also two banners marking the countdown to
Black Friday. Days before Black Friday not a single charity banner can be seen. Moreover
on the home page a new link ―Your digital items‖ appears. After all, in 2010 Amazon
announced that sales of digital books for Kindle in the US have surpassed paperback
books.
A glimpse through the home page also reveals additional subtle changes through 2001 –
2011. For instance, Amazon‘s blog which has been on the home page through 2008.
There were days with at least 18 postings in it, yet since 2009 we have not seen a link to
Amazon‘s blog on the home page. Another short-lived feature on the home page is
Amazon Customers‘ vote where users announce what they want to buy. From 2003 to
2006 there is a ―Sell your stuff‖ link on Amazon‘s home page. Since 2007 it has
disappeared. Probably it is a failed attempt to compete with the online auction provider
eBay.

4. In terms of wording, ―Frequently bought together‖ and ―Recommended based on your
browsing history‖ have lost priority to the less intrusive ―What other customers are
looking at right now‖ which Amazon uses heavily since 2008.
In 2008 Amazon for the first time displayed users‘ lists of products on their home page.
It was the first time a username was actually shown on amazon.com. This could be seen
as a reaction to the popularity of social networks like Facebook. However, in 2009 lists
lost their place on Amazon‘s homepage. Perhaps management‘s frustration with
Amazon‘s inability to create successful social features led to the hiring of Amazon‘s first
Social Media director in 2011.viii
―Gift certificates‖ has been a prominent link on Amazon‘s home page in 2006 and 2007.
Maybe this is intertwined with another featured link – ―Jewelry & watches‖. But in 2007
they both lose their priority. This is surprising since 2007 marked a record in jewelry
sales in US.ix In this case, the disappearance of a link on the home page does not mean a
consequence of economic processes in society, but it is due to a shift in focus for
Amazon.
In short in 2011 Amazon is more focused towards digital goods and services. Its home
page in 2001 reveals a more versatile e-retailer. However limited the scope of this study
(only 50 screenshots have been used), it can be built upon with research on other e-
commerce websites like Best Buy, Walmart, eBay etc. The data could be useful not only
in revealing e-commerce trends and know-how. Consequently it can be examined if
changes in online retailers‘ home pages reflect deeper social changes in the world.
Literature
i
―Bleak Friday‖. Economist.com. 2009. (Accessed 17.11.2011) <
http://www.economist.com/node/14973087>
ii
―‘Tis the season to be frugal‖. Economist.com. 2011. (Accessed 17.11.2011)
<http://www.economist.com/node/21538756>
iii
―Cyber Monday‖ quickly becoming the one of the biggest online shopping days of the year‖.
Shop.org. 2005. (Accessed 17.11.2011)
<http://www.shop.org/c/journal_articles/view_article_content?groupId=1&articleId=623&version=
1.0>
iv
Masanes, Julien. ―Towards Continuous Web Archiving. First results and an agenda for the future.‖
D-Lib Magazine, Volume 8, number 12, December 2002. (Accessed 17.11.2011)
<http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december02/masanes/12masanes.html>
v
Pearce, D., Charlton B. ―Plagiarism of online material may be proven using the Internet
Archive Wayback Machine‖. Medical Hypotheses, Volume73, issue 6.
vi
Veronin, Michael. ―Where Are They Now? A Case Study of Health-related Web Site Attrition‖.
Journal of Medical Internet Research, Volume 4 (2), October-December 2002.
vii
Ryan T., Field R., Olfman L. ―The evolution of US state government home pages from 1997 to
2002‖. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Volume 59, issue 4, October 2003.
Pages 403 – 430.
viii
Barr, Alistair. ―Amazon steps up social media efforts‖. Reuters.com. 2011.(Accessed 18.11.2011)
< http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/07/uk-amazon-social-idUSLNE78603W20110907>
ix
―U.S. Jewelry Sales Reach Record Level In 2010‖. IdexOnline.com. 2010. Idex Magazine.
(Accessed 18.11.2011) <http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullMazalUbracha.asp?id=35244>