connecting*the*dots

Over the years, I’ve spent a bit of my time writing about Amazon.com — ranging from posts critiquing their interaction model and interface design to propping their innovative, explorative iterations that have changed both online commerce and the web in general in extremely positive ways.

So someone, anyone, please explain to me what they’re thinking with this Unbox service model?

Cory Doctorow absolutely dissected their user agreement today, so I won’t spend any energy on that front. Read his article for the lowdown on their attempts of intrusion into your computer and your ownership rights.

After I read his post, I jumped over to Amazon to see for myself what all the bitching was about. Below is a sample Unbox product screen-shot:

(click for larger image)

The first thing I looked for was the user agreement that Cory tore to shreds, and in finding it next to the 1-Click button, something seemed odd.

1-Click isn’t enabled on my Amazon account.

Not jumping to conclusions, I figured that maybe I turned on 1-Click during one of my many visits to Amazon over the past few months, so I navigated over to my 1-Click settings.

Hm, turned off like I thought.

Thinking that there had to be some explanation about this default switch, I dove into their (well designed) help section and pulled up the 1-Click page. Guess what? Not a mention of Unbox anywhere.

So let me get this straight:

• Amazon unleashes Unbox, which installs what is essentially spyware on my computer in order to manage the DRM of the product
• Average users who are used to clicking on the Add to Shopping Cart button and backing out of the sales process if they’d like, are surprised with a no turnaround 1-Click setting
• Once the user buys media from Unbox, they are automatically stuck with abiding by the user agreement, which details how the spyware/DRM software is added to the host computer

Forget tricking people into making a purchase they don’t want — that’s easy to deal with — if I didn’t know any better, I’d venture to say that Amazon initiated the default 1-Click setting in order to get as many people as possible to engage in their crazy ass user agreement and initiate the installation of their software on our machines.

Tell us otherwise, Amazon, or I imagine that you’re about to feel the fury of a bunch of early adopters. And that goes much deeper in affecting your brand than a temporary drop of sales.