Why Engadget isn’t on Kindle
I’ve been getting a flood of questions from colleagues, readers, fans, friends, bookworms, etc. asking why Engadget (and the rest of Weblogs, Inc.) isn’t among the blogs being aggregated on Kindle. It’s a fair question with a simple answer. The folks at Amazon did reach out to our team to try to set up a deal, but while I can’t speak to the specifics (the terms of the deal are under nondisclosure), the Kindle-blog business doesn’t necessarily jibe with Engadget’s. Here’s why.
Amazon charges Kindle users to read participating blogs because it has to pay for its EV-DO data network access (a Sprint MVNO they’re calling Whispernet). So long as Amazon is fronting money to move data to its device, it will presumably have to make that money back somehow (hence charging readers to subscribe to blogs). Now, on our end, we’d love to be on every device that aggregates feeds, but we also believe our content should be completely free of charge to those reading. So therein lies the catch-22 — Amazon needs to charge users for delivering content, and we only deliver content by means that doesn’t charge our users.
Of course, we’re still in touch with their team and I’d really like to see something happen. But until then you’ll just have to use the Kindle’s paradoxically free web browser to hit up Engadget. (Yeah, I know, I don’t get why they charge for blogs but make browsing free, either. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?)
Co-founder of 
I don’t think I quite understand.
Instead of charging a flat rate for unlimited bandwidth, they charge per subscription.
You don’t have a problem with me paying my ISP for bandwidth that I use to read Engadget. So why should this be different?
“…But until then you’ll just have to use the Kindle’s paradoxically free web browser to hit up Engadget. (Yeah, I know, I don’t get why they charge for blogs but make browsing free, either. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?)”
Yeah – wouldn’t the browsing cost more money anyhooo? Whoops… getting a call on my iPhone… what a bargain!
pennyfan87, there is no revenue sharing agreement with the internet, we post content, people are free to access it however and wherever they want via the web.
This is a device-specific content channel and with it comes revenue sharing agreements. We are not out to make money on our content, our business is to make money from advertising — the two are distinctly different.
I appreciate you looking out for us readers Ryan. And yeah, I want to read Engadget for free.
…but for those who just GOTTA get Engadget on their new Apple IIc…er…I mean Kindle, there must be some kind of work around possible using Yahoo Pipes.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/
Ryan, that is interesting about the free browser, which has access to all the blogs they want to otherwise charge for. My question would be whether the aggregator shows the full web page, or just the text. That would be a double-whammy for Engadget: charging readers for the content AND not showing them any of the ads that support that content!
On a related point, does the browser Kindle uses have an ad-blocker? :0) BTW, I wanted to give you kudos for how you handled the Apple ad issue on the site. I still have issues with the sheer number of ads on the site (they made the page so painful I actually stopped reading until I heard about ad-blocker), you stepped up and dealt with it professionally (even if all the commenters didn’t return that professionalism). You can read my own comments there on the issue.
So, they have blocked bloglines and google reader?
Amazon TOS vaguely lays out that if you abuse usage, they’re lay a fee or cut it off directly.
I understand they have to make a profit on the ‘free’ lunch and hope a nominal fee can be applied to the MVNO service: buy the engadget blog and get 10MB of bw per month, something like that.
Also I think the browser is running NetFront 3.3 per last page of the manual. Access (fmr PalmSource) maintains NF and v3.3 supposedly supports PDF.
its push vs pull, they push it to you and its ON your kindle so you can read it on an airplane even if no wireless, if you use the browser you can only read it if you have a signal and its not stored ont he device or formated for the device. I am not agreeing with charging for it, but they are doing something extra atleast.
I think if you check you’ll see the Web portion is in the experimental area. When the bugs are worked out I suspect we will see it be a subscription as well.
I’m pretty disappointed. My Kindle arrived yesterday and I looked everywhere for an Engadget feed to test out the blog reader. Ryan, I understand that you guys don’t want to charge for your content — but some of us WANT TO PAY for your content. You are letting principle get in the way of revenue and at the same time you are depriving your most rabid fans of their preferred form of entertainment. I’ll try to check it out on the free web browser but in all honesty that app sucks, and I would much rather just have your entries show up automagically.
I have to agree with #10. Who cares if I choose to pay for something that you are getting a revenue share on? I know that going into it and am willing to pay the fee.
I have a feeling this is more about you getting your ads cut out of the feeds so if the Kindle really took off, and your rev share from it didn’t equal the ad rev you get, then that is the real problem.
Eh, not really. We don’t really make any money from our full RSS feeds anyway, so it’s no real difference. Believe it or not, there’s nothing behind the curtain, no ulterior motives at play.
[...] • Slow screen refresh (although, it’s a book, not a movie) • No touchscreen (hard to get used to if you’re used to it) • Web browsing is horrible (although would get you out of a jam maybe) • Not overly customizable (I’d love to change the picture that stays on the screen when it’s ‘off’ – but no options for that) • Want you to PAY to read BLOGS [...]