Go to wowio.com on your iPhone/Touch and you’ll automatically be sent to the iPhone edition of WOWIO.

I’d love to hear your feedback (here or you can follow WOWIO on Twitter and send comments there).

> isn’t there a way to distinguish American
> visitors from others—geographically, at least?

Not really. A proxy server or onion router can easily be used to mask the actual origin of an HTTP request.

> Looking on Wowio for a PDF freebie of Alice’s
> Adventure Under Ground, the Lewis Carroll
> classic? Forget it.

Why bother with Wowio for titles like this in the first place? I go to Feedbooks, which deserves our support for a wide variety of reasons. No, Alice’s Adventure Under Ground isn’t currently available from Feedbooks, but you’ll note on Carroll’s author page a user request from last January that Sylvie and Bruno be added to the collection, and it’s now available. Ask and perhaps ye shall receive.

> I was a bit sarcastic in suggesting that Wowio’s
> loud ads in online editions were a way to torture
> you into buying PDF files.

Sarcasm aside, there can be little doubt that this is at least part of the sales strategy.

> Blinking ads are the enemy of immersive reading

Not to mention mouse-over ads that mask the content you’re trying to read when you inadvertently move the mouse pointer across them — argh! That’s why I’ve installed the Adblock Plus plug-in on my browser; I just did a test drive at Wowio and was able to view a randomly chosen title online without seeing any ads.

> According to Will, I shouldn’t bemoan the barrage
> of ads because such similar distractions are in
> the face of visitors to “mainstream news and
> information” sites.

Or, to put it another way, “We’re no more obnoxious than most other sites.” Not a particularly strong endorsement IMHO.

> if garish ads are so such life-enhancers, shouldn’t
> the rich put up billboards on their country estates?

Visit Vermont sometime. Billboards are prohibited by law. When we moved to Vermont from California we hadn’t been in the state for more than a couple of hours before we remarked on the conspicuous absence of billboards. Curiously, we don’t feel any less free as a result of Vermont’s prohibition of outdoor advertising. In fact, the beauty of the Green Mountains is all the more apparent for lack of billboards calling one’s attention to the nearest fast food restaurant.

Thanks…because I have removed Wowio from my bookmarks and won’t be visiting again. The re-launched site is a major disappointment, and simply not worth my time.