7 posts tagged “amazon”
The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.
Have a great weekend,
daisy, Team Vox
In my last Team Vox post, I let you know that we're aware that the Amazon conduit is broken and that we're working to fix it. Many of you want to know when it's going to be fixed and I'm so sorry I haven't gotten back to you about that sooner.
Unfortunately, I don't have an exact date to give you, but rest assured, the Amazon conduit will be fixed in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, I'm about to finish my latest book and I could use a few suggestions as to what to read next, so... if you don't mind, let me know in the comments what's on your nightstand and/or what book you think I absolutely must read next.
Thanks! :)
Some of you may have noticed that right now you cannot add books from Amazon to your Vox library. Giving people a glimpse into what's on your night stand is important to many of you, so I just wanted to reassure you that we are doing our best to get this bug fixed. I'll keep you posted.
So sorry for the inconvenience.
Hope you have a great weekend!
daisy
Summer is a season full of movie releases. Maybe you are looking forward to a sequel to that hit you saw a few summers back, or maybe a few of your favorite TV stars are making the jump to the big screen. Once you see a great (or terrible) film, it's always fun to record on your blog that you saw it, and even write a little review about it!
Did you know that Vox's Videos feature uses Amazon's database? The Amazon search feature not only lists DVDs, but also current movies that are in the theater. This makes it easy to spotlight a new movie even if it's not available to buy yet. You can learn more about this by reading Managing Videos and Amazon.
So let's say that you went out to see a new movie this last weekend, the new Spider-Man 3 movie that we were talking about last week. To add this movie to your Vox account, start out by going to My Vox > Organize and then click on Videos in the sidebar. Now click the New... button to search for a movie. You'll see a variety of ways to search, and since you want a current movie, click on the Amazon tab. To find your movie, try typing "Spider-Man 3". This may show you several matches, but you can hover over them to see more of the title to choose the one you want. Now select and add that item.
The movie is now in your library, and shows on the Organize > Videos screen. To add a brief review of the movie, select that movie and click Edit Details. Type your review in the Description field, and add some tags to help you remember more about it. You can even change the date to reflect when you watched it so you'll have a history of all of your movies on the specific dates. Save your changes, and your review is saved in your library.
There are a variety of other ways you can use Vox to keep track of movies and videos and write reviews - what works really well for you and your viewing habits?
-- Kristine and the Vox help team
From all the great feedback you give us through the Feedback link at the bottom of every Vox page, we know that many of you love Vox's integration with YouTube, Flickr, Amazon, and other web services. We recently made it even easier for you to pull that outside content into your Vox blogs by adding more specific searches for some of those sites.
Let's walk through an example. Say you've had a sudden epiphany about how your entire worldview has been shaped by the movie "The Princess Bride" that you've seen a million times since you were a teenager. Of course, you need to share this with the Vox community, and you have several media items to include in your post. Unfortunately, you have just a few minutes before you have to leave for work. How will you ever pull it all together in time? The following improved searches come to the rescue!
Managing Photos:
You have the perfect photo to show how your fascination began early with your Dread Pirate Roberts Halloween costume as a child. It's already uploaded to Flickr, but it's got the tag "childhood" along with dozens of your other Flickr photos. Instead of going through a tag search, just search the Flickr URL or Photo ID of that specific photo to immediately find and add it to your Vox blog.
Managing Audio:
The soundtrack of the movie has also been a big part of your life: You and your own Princess Buttercup even used the song "Storybook Love" from the movie as part of the music for your wedding. There's no need to search through several CDs on Amazon to find the right one; just search on the ASIN (B000002LCB) or URL (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002LCB) to find the specific soundtrack.
Managing Video:
There's no surprise that you need to add some videos to your post. You're talking about the movie that's shaped your life after all! You decide that you have to share the "Dread Pirate Edition" of the DVD, so you add that to your post from Amazon by using the ASIN (B000F9RBBC ) or URL (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F9RBBC/). With so many editions of the DVD out now, it's nice to be able to go directly to the one you want to share.
Speaking of the DVD, you still remember when the Dread Pirate Edition was released and how excited you were, so you decide to share the DVD trailer with everyone reading your post. Lucky for you, it's already on YouTube, so you just search by URL (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ksETP325o40) or Video ID (ksETP325o40) to add it to your post.
Managing Books:
Finally, you decide that the post wouldn't be complete without mention of the book that started it all - The Princess Bride by William Goldman. To quickly add that hardcover anniversary edition you love, just type the ISBN/ASIN (034543014X) or URL (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034543014X) in the Amazon search box.
Of course these newer URL and ID searches will work with any photos, audio, videos or books. Maybe you want to add a recent YouTube video, and it's not yet indexed for you to search for it with tags. No problem! Want to quickly add some older photos from your Flickr account without going through multiples with the same tag? Again, we've got you covered!
We hope this helps you spend more time creating and sharing memories and less time hunting for them!
-- Brandy & the Vox Help team
While exploring Vox, have you ever seen a YouTube video or Amazon item that you'd like to be able to quickly share on your own blog? We've got just the thing for you! Vox has a great Re-Blogging feature that lets you add YouTube and Amazon items to your blog with just one click.
Let our pal Wally show you how it's done! Wally is taking a look at some of the latest audio additions in Explore when he sees an album that catches his eye: Billboard Top Hits of the 90's. The songs immediately take him back to the summer evenings on the Jersey Shore with his friends before they all went their separate ways after high school. Each song from groups like Ace of Base and Barenaked Ladies has a strong memory attached to it, and he wants to share some of those stories on his blog.
Wally is a busy guy and maybe just a bit lazy, so the thought of having to go to his blog and then find the album in order to get started on a post about it almost stops him from even bothering with it. Suddenly, he realizes that he can bypass all of that by just clicking the "Re-Blog This" button next to the album. Re-Blogging has saved the day!
Normally, we wouldn't encourage anyone to emulate Wally because he can be a bit odd, but in this case, he's the perfect role model! Explore audio, videos, and books on Vox, and see what you find that starts you wandering down memory lane. Go to the individual asset page for any item that catches your eye, and then click "Re-Blog This". With one click, the YouTube video or Amazon book, CD or DVD is added to your library, and you're taken to a Compose page with that item already inserted. Just type whatever you want to say and then click Save to save your post.
For more information about Re-Blogging, check out Re-Blogging Vox Assets. Re-Blogging is a great opportunity for sharing content on Vox. As Wally might say: "Whoomp! Re-Blog This!"
There's a great new feature for you Amazon fans -- you're no longer limited to one Amazon site when searching for books, videos or audio. Now you can utilize Amazon US, Amazon , Amazon France, and Amazon to help fill your Vox library.
Whether you're writing a post in Compose, or entering in your whole bookshelf from the Organize page, you'll now see a dropdown box with the four Amazon sources. Select the desired Amazon location, enter your keywords, and click Search. It's as easy as that!
Using Amazon is a great way to add to your Vox Library, whether you're interested in books, audio, videos, or even all three. Adding an item from Amazon will show a variety of information about it, including the cover image if available, which makes your blog as colorful and happy as you are. Enhancing your Library is all about showing your neighborhood or the Vox world what you like: what you've got on your nightstand, what you've been watching on DVD, or what's in your CD player.
You can utilize these new Amazon locations no matter where you live. Maybe you want to blog about an import CD from another country, or about original series DVDs from the BBC. Or to just show people something good you've found in another country that you'd love to get your hands on. You might also find that these Amazon resources are great for finding alternate covers for books!
We hope you take the time to explore the options for books, audio, and videos, and enjoy these new Amazon locations along the way. You can always find out more info about using Amazon or the library in general in our Knowledge Base under our Books, Audio, and Videos sections.
