Actually the technical books were not free at Amazon and I did not need to buy every book I wanted to read at Safari Books. Amazon while it does have free books it originally started out only being free to those who had a Kindle device, that may have changed by now. One of the things you look for is what can you get out of a service in order to purchase that service from it’s provider. If I were to go the Amazon route at the time I purchased Safari books, I would have had to pay 9.99 or more to even browse through over a dozen books to get what I wanted. I would venture to guess even now you choose ten books at Amazon Kindle that I use and ten books at Safari Books and you will end up paying to read them. With Safari, I can do a search and the results will turn up the pages in which the subject is on. I click on the link and begin reading about what I was looking for immediately. You cannot do this on Amazon. This makes troubleshooting and research much faster and easier. Another topic, take for example someone learning Java and using Deitl (famous textbook author on programming languages) Sure you can buy the book at Amazon, but can you also watch the instructional videos that accompany the book? Or do you need to buy the book first and then have access to it. Safari Books does not require you to shuffle your books on your device to manage memory. There are so many reasons why I prefer Safari over Amazon when it comes to books related to Business than Amazon. If I need a good sci-fi-fantasy book to read, sure I will take a look at Amazon. Safari is a niche market for technical and business people who need access to a whole or part of a book/video without having to purchase it to read it. A year for Safari is $299 which equates to just under 25 a month. Sure if you pay monthly the cost rises.
As far as 2 day free shipping, you need to get away from Amazon a little more. If you purchase a certain amount from a vendor it is usually the norm.
Hulu Plus allows you to watch new episodes the day after they air. Amazon you have to wait until the entire season is available before you can view the episode.
One other thing, if you are paying for a subscription to get music, books shipping, tv shows and movies, limited storage etc... it ain’t free.
Really, you can get Wrox publishing books free? You can get the How to Program series free? If you are getting these free, it isn’t legal. Amazon is about selling books and such you more than likely won’t be able to search through the pages of over 40K books to find a paragraph about a certain subject. Good Luck finding the proverbial needle in the hay stack at Amazon.
I have never paid more than 25 a month at Safari. Take the annual plan it’s cheaper.
You are paying too much.
And no, it is not true that you get 2 day free shipping for certain amounts on the internet. You may get free shipping, but it is not 2 day guaranteed, it is ground. Now maybe you are lucky and live near all of the major distribution centers, so it seems like 2nd day, but it is ground.
I can search my Amazon books. And for most everything else I need, I can “google” search the internet and find my answer, no $25 a month subscription needed. And youtube, baby. It is all on there, it is so amazing. I have done more repairs in the last year at my house using youtube videos to find out where and how to replace parts on appliances and on my cars.
And don’t get me started on the tech videos on youtube. Absolutely outstanding information out there.