Amazon shopaholic beware – Amazon is planning to use artificial gravity to help you shop … and you may be drawn to it. Amazon just received a patent for “gravity-based link assist technology.” That means that when you’re trying to click on something on Amazon’s site, your cursor will be drawn to links and buttons in a virtual gravitational field. The goal is to make Amazon’s site more accessible and easier to navigate if you find yourself clicking all over the place with little success. But it also gives Amazon the ability to magically draw your mouse toward related items you might also want to buy… or ones Amazon wants to sell you. This would be interesting if using a mouse, or your touch screen, was producing sub-optimal results. But Amazon’s links are pretty easy to click. Oh well, next time you find yourself buying something you don’t really want, you can blame artificial gravity instead of your shopaholic genes.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.