Amazon takes (online) retail and makes it a non-buying destination

Amazon launched its new content hub The BackStory today. A a place where people can check out author interview, podcasts, recipes, new essays and post questions. This is an interesting trend in a couple different ways: 1. It’s creating a new content marketplace (there will be lots more this year, trust me) and 2. It gives me a reason to go to Amazon BESIDES e-commerce and sets itself up the online version of my favorite neighborhood bookstore that has author readings and meet and greets.

I wonder what we’ll come to expect out of our retail experience if we follow down the path of this trend—fashion sites have already incorporated a bit of this with virtual stylists..(via @TechCrunch)