Why every service should be like Kindle
I always read on my Kindle device before I go to sleep. The next day I commute to work using public transportation. When I open Kindle on my mobile phone it asks me if I want to continue where I left off before I dozed of. When I return home I usually catch up on industry world news on my iPad. After I’ve done that I often times open the iPad Kindle app and I can continue reading where I stopped when I arrived at the station.
I really love the way I get a continuous experience regardless of the device I use. Why are there so many services that don’t do this.
- Why doesn’t Twitter (or tweetdeck) sync the furthest read tweet so I have to scroll through my timeline when I move from my phone to my laptop.
- Why doesn’t Spotify load the queue I was listening on my phone when I start Spotify on my desktop (I know they know when I switch between the desktop app and my mobile device)?
- Why does Zite keep showing me stuff I’ve already seen?
- Why doesn’t Facebook keep track what items I have and haven’t read?
Some services do get it.
- Exchange syncs my read and unread mails between phone, pc, tablet, web and more.
- ….
- ….
- I honestly can’t think of a third one.
I’m calling on everyone who is planning to build a service to keep multiple devices in mind when architecting it.
P.S. Don’t you love my new theme? Minimalism is the new new black.