Exact Editions Blog

If you value your position in the market it may be a mistake to control too much. Amazon’s eBook system the Kindle does not allow the user to purchase eBooks from suppliers other than Amazon. The Kindle rather tightly controls the environment in which eBooks can play. Sony has a rival eBook reader, which seems to be very similar but may have been losing ground to the Kindle. Perhaps the realisation that they cannot beat the Kindle at the game … Keep Reading

The Exact Editions platform has worked on the iPhone from the start. Here is a shot of a search on a Berkshire Publishing title, The Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports

Notice the search terms highlighted in blue. But the iPhone has some peculiar features and the question is ‘How much should a platform which addresses the universal web try to accommodate the peculiar strengths and limitations of the iPhone?’ Especially since it seems quite likely that Apple will soon produce … Keep Reading

We have developed an e-commerce service for Profile Books who do a series of books sponsored by The Economist. It is a great series with concise and highly informative coverage of key management and business topics. For some reason the title which particularly caught my fancy was The Economist Guide to Management Ideas and Gurus. I am a sucker for quick guides to gurus and key ideas. It is a very well written and clear book. The style is … Keep Reading

The in-flight magazine may be on its last legs. In yesterday’s Guardian Media Section Conor Purcell speculates that environmental pressures and the cost of fuel will render the in-flight magazine obsolete. Emirates will soon drop its house magazine:

According to Emirates’ president Tim Clark, the decision to ban all onboard paper will lighten the aircraft by a tonne. “It’s 2kg per seat and 500 seats, a worthwhile saving,” he says. “We are doing it because of fuel prices and the

Google has now opened up its developing database of Knols. See the official announcement (“a knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic”), and Danny Sullivan’s helpful assessment. Danny provides a good outline of what Knol is doing and how it works. His reservation is particularly interesting:

Overall, I still lean toward not wanting Google to do this. I remain concerned that by hosting this content, it plays too much in the content owner space when its