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Non-Tech : Borders Group (BGP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Phuoc Le who wrote (312)	4/23/1999 3:38:00 AM
From: Bill J. Landis	Respond to of 411

I'm not certain ... but I believe a big issue re: reviews and similar content on the websites has to do with traffic and "maturity". Amazon has been focusing on the web longer, so has had a longer time to build up their review "database", and since they get so much more traffic, more readers add their own reviews. So, while Borders definitely should put some more effort into the content aspect of the website, some improvement on that front will probably just come with time.

To: Phuoc Le who wrote (312)	4/23/1999 7:21:00 AM
From: Zakrosian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 411

Phuoc - While I tend to agree with your opinion of their web site, I wonder whether the issues you cite will really matter to the majority of shoppers. To me, at least, reviews aren't that important. I pretty much know what I want to buy before I do my shopping. I think by far the biggest problem with their web site is their search feature. I found it very difficult to actually find a specific CD I was looking for (Amazon wasn't that much better, CDNow definitely the best). Availability is also a problem as Borders is much more limited than either Amazon or CDNow, Ultimately, what I expect most heavy web shoppers will do is simply fill up their shopping cart at the different vendors' site and buy from whoever has the lowest overall price. It's not too hard to read the reviews at Amazon, explore the links provided at CDNow, and then buy from Borders - if they have what you're looking for and you can find it. For that reason, I can't see how any of these vendors will make much money selling over the web.