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Amazon Launches Virtual 'Dash' Buttons For One-Click Buying From the Homepage (recode.net)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the making-things-easier dept.

Amazon's Dash Buttons, those tiny, physical gadgets, make buying products from the online retailer easier when you're not in front of a computer. Now the company is taking that idea back to its digital storefront. From a report on Recode: The new virtual Dash buttons started appearing on the Amazon.com homepage and the Amazon app home screen on Thursday night. The company is automatically creating ones for items you recently ordered or order often. An order is placed with one click or tap on the digital button. An Amazon spokesperson said Prime members can create a virtual one-click button for tens of millions of products available for Prime delivery. "Add to your Dash buttons" is now an option on the product page of all eligible products. Virtual Dash buttons are free to use, while the physical ones cost $4.99. A spokesperson said the idea for the virtual shortcuts came from the success of the physical buttons and is not connected to the reported expiration of the Amazon patent for one-click purchases.

22 comments

  1. Choo Choo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know what that sound is?

    That's the coal train leaving the station!!

    Choo Choo!!

  2. I HAVE THE PATENT ON VIRTUAL ONE CLICK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


     

  3. Counterfeit Merchandise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    They need a One-Click button to report counterfeit merchandise and fake sellers more than anything else.

  4. Amazing by The-Ixian · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I kind of feel like we are not far away from a point where the default is to buy stuff from Amazon and you have to click a button or do some action to avoid it.

    There really isn't anything easier than clicking a button.... or wait a minute.... What if, by making eye contact with a particular device an Amazon order is triggered... sort of like the weird guy on the bus when you accidentally make eye contact and he takes that as an invitation to come talk to you... Or the childish game where if you are tricked into looking at something you get punched in the arm. It's on *you* because you made eye contact... silly person...

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    1. Re:Amazing by magarity · · Score: 1

      Not far away? Heck, there are already items that default to 'subscribe and save!' where the unwary will get a new shipment every n months.

  5. Thanks, Amazon by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Let's keep making your site harder and harder to actually use - I'm sure that will go well.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. Not ready for "Prime" time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So this isn't ready for "Prime" time.

    I signed in and it shows two of them on the home screen. Both things I ordered only once - many months ago. Yet, I have some protein bars that I order every 2 months. They weren't shown (and they are prime, fulfulled AND sold by Amazon). If I go to "manage" the dash buttons it was there - in third position. I used the feature to change the position and put it to first position. That doesn't seem to change the way they display on the home page so all that are there are the things I would never order again (as they were one time purchases). The thing I re-order all the time still does not appear up front.

    Yeah, that needs some work.

    1. Re:Not ready for "Prime" time by sexconker · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What's worse is there's no way to disable it. I had 9 buttons and I had to manually remove each of them. I can't stop it from adding more, I can't stop them from showing up on the main page, and I can't bulk delete them.

      I DON'T WANT THIS SHIT.

      The directory (http://amzn.to/2jW72VV) is much more useful than the homepage. I would recommend people bookmark it, but the fact is they recently made it worse. It used to be a simple, usable list of all "departments" on Amazon. Now they're adding graphics and recommendations to this page too.

    2. Re:Not ready for "Prime" time by rsborg · · Score: 1

      Concur. How do I opt out of this?

      It'd be nice if it were relevant, but they seem like VERY poorly targeted ads. I buy none of that shit (mostly cosmetics). My wife may have purchased some years ago in the past, but honestly, I get all order in my email, and perusing my folder show like zero hits in the past 4 years.

      WTF Amazon?

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    3. Re:Not ready for "Prime" time by rsborg · · Score: 1

      How did you remove them? I can't even see how to do that.

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      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    4. Re:Not ready for "Prime" time by sexconker · · Score: 1

      From the management page, I had to click into each one and then delete it, I believe. I made sure to click on the left portion of the image and not the circle on the right. The circle on the right is for buying the thing and the left portion is for getting info about the thing. I don't know if clicking on the circle from the management page would have triggered a purchase or not, but I didn't want to risk it.

  7. It is already too easy to buy stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I now temporarily live in a place where I can't shop online and I'm seriosly considering closing my Amazon account when I return. I realised that most of the stuff I've been buying I didn't really need. Online shopping can suck money, time and house space like nothing else. It is good to have a little barrier that makes you think before making a purchase. Erasing it may benefit retailers and producers but not the end user.

  8. Good job, Amazon! by Donald+J.+Trump · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nice job Amazon, you're really grabbing this concept right by the pussy! You'll make online purchasing Great Again!

    1. Re:Good job, Amazon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Physical buttons should be free.

    2. Re:Good job, Amazon! by Donald+J.+Trump · · Score: 1

      What kind of crap is that? You're not going to Make America Great Again by giving away shit for free!

    3. Re:Good job, Amazon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I gots Obana phone, n1gga. That shiz be free.

  9. this is all very odd by supernova87a · · Score: 1

    Am I such a strange outlier from the general population that all of Amazon's devices/interfaces to make buying things easier seem strange to me?

    Is it odd that I am not really on the lookout for ways to make it easier for me to be parted with my money? Maybe I'm just cheap, but I tend to think a bit before spending money, and not just want to press a button and have $ disappear from my bank account.

    1. Re:this is all very odd by radish · · Score: 2

      For anything expensive, sure. But this isn't for that - the buttons are for things you already use, already have decided you like, and don't want to have to think about running out of. I have one for trash bags, for example. I don't need to spend time thinking about trash bags, I just need more to magically appear when I'm nearly out.

      It's a convenience, nothing more.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    2. Re:this is all very odd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is the price you pay not important? You are willing to buy pay whatever Amazon charges without comparing? I understand you are going to buy trash bags but if they are $10 at amazon and $8 somewhere else then you are paying a bunch more. Add this up across all items and you can be drastically screwed by amazon and that is what they are hoping for - a bunch of drones clicking "I need more" without looking at price.

  10. How to easily avoid this by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    If you're not logged into Amazon, then you don't see those silly buttons. Since I regularly clear my cookies, when I go to Amazon it generally does not try to personalize the Amazon landing page... which keeps the page much simpler and better.

    When I go to Amazon, all I usually want to do is search for a product - I don't spend any time browsing the landing page. Fortunately Bezos hasn't (yet) moved the search box somewhere down below whatever the crap du jour is.

    Since Amazon doesn't make it easy to log out of their site, deleting their cookies is the fastest way to accomplish this.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:How to easily avoid this by lucaiaco · · Score: 1

      Upvoted for the perfect usage of the phrase "crap du jour". (...and upvote cancelled after this comment)

  11. Nonsense. Disabling is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nonsense. Disabling is simple. As in: Simplify, simplify. (Thoreau)

    Just delete links to Amazon from your computer and don't visit the site. Downgrade to a dumb cellphone and don't buy any apps at all.

    I haven't bought anything from Amazon in years. Used to be my number one place to shop.

    It has become more hassle - ie work - to buy from them than to simply go without. Books, music, video: library or bricks & mortar. Tools, hardware, material: bricks & mortar. Food, appliances, sundries: Grocery stores and shopping clubs. Clothes: catalogs or catalog sites of specific companies.

    The only winning move is not to play.