Linked List: April 11, 2017

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Amazon Continues to Grow Lead Over Google as Starting Point for Online Shoppers ★

What’s interesting here aren’t the most recent numbers, but the stark trendline over the past three years. Amazon is eating Google’s lunch.

A personal anecdote:

Over the weekend I impulse purchased a clip-on booklight from Moleskine. It was like $19. It looked OK, and I liked the idea of having one that’s rechargeable over USB. Got it home, charged it, and it was busted — the light only worked when it was actually plugged into a USB port. Unplugged, it simply didn’t work. I looked on Amazon, and lo, this product gets terrible reviews, many of them from people seeing problems exactly like mine. The consensus is that Moleskine’s booklight is a piece of garbage. I thought, “This is why I shop for stuff like this at Amazon.”

The thought of searching through Google never entered my mind.

Samsung’s Bixby Assistant Won’t Support Voice Commands When Galaxy S8 Launches ★

Nick Statt, reporting for The Verge:

However, in a statement given to The Verge this afternoon, Samsung admits that Bixby’s headline feature — voice control — won’t be ready in time for when the device ships to US consumers on April 21st. Instead, owners of the S8 will have to wait for a software update to be released later this spring.

“Key features of Bixby, including Vision, Home, and Reminder, will be available with the global launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 on April 21. Bixby Voice will be available in the US on the Galaxy S8 later this spring,” Samsung’s statement reads.

This voice assistant stuff is hard.