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Barnes & Noble goes Web 2.0

BN.com
Bookseller Barnes & Noble has updates its website, adding a bit of Web 2.0 goodness including podcasts, a tag cloud, and multimedia.

According to the Associated Pres, Barnes & Noble makes about 10% of its sales through the web. Probably the most noticeable (and most distracting) change is a huge section at the top of the page where new releases scroll past. You can hover your mouse over each book for more information.

While we're glad to see sites take advantage of new technologies to improve the shopping experience, we're not quite convinced Barnes & Noble's redesign fits the bill. The tag cloud might be useful if it weren't all the way at the bottom of the page where you'll only find it if you're looking for it. And as Read/WriteWeb points out, there are a few really useful features that are missing like recommendations and RSS feeds, both things that Amazon offers.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

CiviballsI have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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