Posted on 05/14/2007 11:03:38 AM PDT by HarmlessLovableFuzzball
Online retailer Amazon.com today announced it has acquired dpreview.com, a website for digital camera information and reviews. Founded in 1998 by Phil Askey, dpreview.com will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in London. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Dpreview.com is by far the most authoritative source anywhere for straight talk about new digital cameras,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “We at Amazon.com have been their fans for a long time, and we extend a big welcome to the dpreview.com team.”
“One of the difficulties of operating dpreview.com independently has been the balance between producing content and delivering new site features,” said Phil Askey, founder of dpreview.com. “Now, with the support of Amazon, I’ll be able to devote more of my time to expanding and improving our features – such as product reviews and discussion forums while still delivering the high-quality content that our readers have come to expect.”
Amazon.com sells hundreds of different digital cameras and accessories, though lacks a dedicated editorial review section like those featured in the online retailer’s music and movies section. Currently, only customer-submitted reviews are noted with each digital camera product. As a result of the acquisition of dpreview.com, Amazon shoppers may soon find expanded information on products offered on the website.
Do you think they will still be independent or be beholden to Amazon.com to move product?
Wow!
I’ve been a hard core Dpreview junky for a long time. Just recently kicked the habit. (I have too many cameras anyway!)
That's always a legitimate concern. But I can't see Phil bowing to any pressure to fudge things, though. His reviews are very thorough. He'd have to literally make stuff up if he were to try and just "move product".
So, I'm not too worried about it.
So have I for as long as I can remember. And I have more cameras and lenses than I need.
Hard to say. After amazon acquired imdb.com it still remains the most comprehensive source for movies on the web. If anything, its become better. I guess it will be the same with dpreview.
Bezos has chosen a good product, I find dpreviews to be accurate and informative.
That’s reassuring to know. It is a great site. Hope they keep up the good work.
Can’t have too many cameras.
Lol. Can you elaborate ?
Got to have a macro, a wide angle and a long range, and backups! Never know what you will miss, take no chances!
http://www.pbase.com/tsiya/root
http://photobucket.com/albums/v244/tsiya/
This reminds me. I did a review (2 stars) on a Garmin Nav Unit on Amazon that NEVER GOT POSTED under Amazon customer reviews...
Here it is:
What better way to find out about a product than to look at Amazon.com reviews? Here are users like me sharing their experiences with the unit! As I write this there are almost 300 reviews of this unit. How could you go wrong?
Sad to say but after using the Garmin Streetpilot c330 for over a week now I am disappointed with the unit. Why? Because it has in it almost nothing around where I live.
I bought the unit because I am relatively new to my area. I live in northern Colorado Springs and so far it has been unable to find a Home Depot, a dentist or the local Toyota Dealer. I admit that there has been a lot of new growth and road construction in this area the last several years, but come on. The other thing that irritates me is that you can’t update the area where you are at until the new map comes out. It costs over $70 and comes out in the summer! (Likely June ’07). So basically I have to wait six months and hope it has more local data and PAY for it without knowing if it is any better!
Liberty Toyota which I tried to find yesterday is a perfect example. Using the Spell Name it can find tons of things with Liberty in their name. Liberty gasoline, Liberty pet grooming you name it. But one of the largest car dealers in the area who has been at their current location for several years? No way!
Basically I have to go in and find the address at Yahoo and enter it in. Then it can take me to the ADDRESS (still it doesn’t recognize this is a huge car dealership!) but if I am going to have to look it up on Yahoo I might as well print up the map while I am there so this saves me very little time or effort.
I am basically a newbie at GPS nav so I might be more impressed if I’d have used other units. I will say that their technical support is very good (I have used them twice so far) but plan at least a ½ hour to an hour for them to come on the line which makes their support nothing to write home about either.
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