Book discovery methods and sources

¶ … Amazon.com website outlines some of the company's security procedures in its Privacy Notice. This notice explains some of the security features of the site, including SSL encryption, using four digits of the credit card number when confirming the order, and providing information about logging out of the user's account. When ordering, Amazon insists that one use an account, and will guide a new visitor to a page to sign up an account. Amazon also does not provide customer information to third parties. However, they do send IP addresses to third party servers in order to target ads. Amazon demonstrates some of their ethical policies in not selling to children, participation in the Safe Harbor Program, and the degree to which it shares information with third-party providers. Amazon has a fairly sparse legal section, but does include helpful information with respect to making copyright infringement claims.

Barnes & Noble is less specific than Amazon about their security measures, only stating that they use "industry standard" methods such as "firewalls and encryptions." They have a link to something called the "safe shopping guarantee" but the link guarantees nothing; it merely points out guarantees that credit card issuers may offer. Unlike with Amazon, one need not set up an account to make a purchase, which ostensibly affords the customer less security. The company's ethics policies are also not stated explicitly, although they do not sell to children. On the legal end, the Barnes & Noble side is more comprehensive with their legal disclaimers and terms of use than is Amazon. They are forthright in their compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and post procedures for reporting infringements.

Borders has the densest legal section of the three companies, outlining a wide range of issues, albeit in formal legal language. The privacy policy is also written in the same thick language, unlike those of the other two companies. Borders does not mention if they sell to minors. There is little indication of any particular ethical practices or strategy from the company. With respect to security, the company follows the industry standards (encryption, firewalls) but takes the time to point out that no security is perfect and even their website can be breached. There is little information with respect to adherence to copyright protections. Overall, Borders offers the most formal set of information to its customers, which seems to cause them to leave out important ethical and security information that the other sites provide.

Amazon uses a wide range of communication tools. The busy-looking website combines text and ample images. The core of Amazon communication, however, is interaction. Cookies and other tools are used to help target ads based on location and past purchase information. These recommendations are supplemented with an interactive component built around user reviews, resulting in a communications program where information comes from Amazon, third parties and fellow customers. Barnes & Noble's communication style is less friendly, but has some nice touches. One is the "most popular search terms" on the bottom of the home page, where the most popular search terms are largest. The communication style is in general more professional and less casual than Amazon's. Although user reviews are allowed, the more professional layout keeps them an extra click away. Borders offers a brighter, very casual communications style. They do not make as extensive use of tools such as cookies as do the other two sites and as a result the site has a less personal feel. All three companies make use of subscription emails to communicate with their customers. Borders has a different take on user reviews, providing more information about the reviewers to improve review integrity. The tools used for the reviews lend them the appearance of greater reliability. Overall, Amazon uses more tools to push products than the other two companies. Those firms have a more formal, less interactive style at the expense of a direct relationship with the customer.