149.0 Amazon Monopoly Because Search Works at Amazon

I have had it up to here with all the news stories lately about how Sony, Kobo, Apple, and Barnes and Noble plan to compete with Amazon by slashing prices. Really? You fools just lost a lawsuit over your attempts to make Amazon quit slashing prices, and now you want to get in on that action? And you think it will get you some of Amazon's market share? You can't see the forrest for the trees!

Amazon gets my business because I can find the books I want to buy on Amazon, not because of its tactics in price wars.

Yes, I can find what I am looking for at Amazon! When I enter search terms at Amazon, I find books about those search terms. That does not reliably happen at any other current online book retailer, and that is what is giving Amazon all the market share. I know people who buy their content from Barnes and Noble or the iBookstore because they have Nooks or iPads. Guess what? They go to Amazon first to search for the topics that interest them and note the titles they want to purchase.

When a friend recommends a book to me, I know I can go to Amazon and find that book in less than 5 seconds flat. But wait, there's more. Not only will I find that book, Amazon will recommend other books their customers bought when they bought that book. This is marketing magic, folks.

By contrast, how long does it take me to even find what I am looking for at Sony, Kobo, Apple, and Barnes and Noble's online bookstores? Sometimes, forever. In some cases where I know a book is on sale at their site because I know the author, I cannot even find the book there if I search for it by title and author name. Fail. Epic fail.

No one wants Amazon to be a monopoly. 

That hurts me as a customer just as much as it hurts you as a competitor. It hurts me as an author, too. I do not want Amazon controlling all my sales. I want to sell in multiple online bookstores, not exclusively through Amazon. However, messing around with prices is not going to do diddly until you make it so people can find the books they want to buy!

Please, I am begging in case you can't tell: Sony! Kobo! Apple! Barnes and Noble! Fix the search and book discovering functions in your online bookstores. If you want to have any hope of competing with Amazon, the first thing you need to do is make it so customers can go to your site instead of Amazon to find the books they want to buy.

Hello Reader! You can help. Write to Sony, Kobo, Apple, or Barnes and Noble and ask them to please fix the search function in their online bookstore so that you can find the books you want to buy on their site instead of going to Amazon:

Barnes and Noble
Andy Milevoj, Vice President, Investor Relations
telephone: (212) 633-3489
e-mail: amilevoj@bn.com

Kobo
TODD HUMPHREY, EVP, Business Development
135 Liberty St. Suite 101
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M6K 1A7

Apple
Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President, Internet Software and Services
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014

Sony
Tadashi Saito, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer
1-7-1 Konan,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075,
Japan
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I gained .2 pounds yesterday. At 149.0 pounds, I am still within my weight-loss goal of 145 pounds to 149.9 pounds. I walked 2 miles. Here is what I ate:

Special K and organic soy milk
Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut Bar
El Monterey beef and green chili burrito with salsa
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Chili Dip
2 Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut Bars