I donated to Wikipedia last month. I clicked the button with a sinking heart, not looking forward to the tedious business of managing to make my donation, hunting up my credit card or PayPal password, and then what appeared but an Amazon link! To say I was relieved would be understating things. I was able to make my donation with the same one-click ease with which I make my purchases. And I left the site thinking Why doesn’t everybody offer this option?
I have reached Peak Password. I don’t care about competition or monopolies any more; I don’t care if Amazon is poised to take over the world and enforce its will via its new drone army. I just never want to create another online account and make up another password. I’ve reached the point where if something requires a new online account, I just do without it.
In the last month alone, I’ve not made online purchases because they required a new account. I’ve not joined groups. I’ve not bought tickets, which means I’ve not attended performances. And I’m not alone.
Imagine if you went into a store and had to fill out a form before you could step up to the cash register and buy your stuff. That establishment would go out of business. Even more so if you could go into the Amazon store next door and buy the very same item with no more trouble than saying ‘hello’ to the clerk.
I don’t see any way this ends well for Amazon holdouts. Theoretically, I should care about that. But in real life, my only emotional response is Yay, no more G.D. accounts to create!
