Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Goes Wiki
StWaldo writes "Amazon.com has added a 'ProductWiki' to some of their item pages. Wikified items seem to be limited to certain categories, DVDs being one un-wikied realm. Adding Wikiness to the site is just the latest in new participatory activities Amazon has adopted, along with tags and customer discussions." From the article: "So Amazon's gradually allowing you, along with your Wish List, your purchases, your clickstream, and, if you sell anything on Amazon, how good your reputation is--to build up a pretty detailed database of what you like (or don't) and what's important to you. I don't know what Amazon will do with this--fortunately, it seems to have a pretty light touch with how it uses what it knows about you--or what it will allow us to do with all this data. But as it grows, it could become a pretty powerful profile."
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/03/identity_20_t houghtp.html
The Amazon spokesman added that the wiki policy required contributions to be strictly NPOV, except for positive comments.
I wonder if they will patent Wikis as well.
"Yields falsehood when preceded by its own quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its own quotation.
I like how they make it out that consumers seem to think that someone cares about what they do and don't appreciate. We all have more crap than we can ever use, but is there really adults out there making "wish lists"? I can't imagine it, but then again...
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
Ignore parent, don't feed the trolls.
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com
Tomorrow headline :
Amazon is granted patent for wikis and files suit against Wikipedia
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Here's hoping Amazon will give us the means to control access to that profile and, ideally, use it throughout the Web to get what we really want, and avoid what we don't.
:-)
Let's hope
Scott McNealy to Michael: "Suck my Sun!" Michael Dell to Scott : "Lick my Dell!"
"Clickstream"? Who comes up with this stuff? Ick.
if it was 180 solutions or gator who had an application that collected this level of information we would call it spyware, especially if the data was used in a commercial context to target the individual, but its all there to "help" us right ?
notes the Amazon(TM) search box installed with Firefox by default
the article is about amazon building up information about you and your preferences. this leads to "silos" that do not interoperate. can this be shared with ebay, or other sites so that you don't have to teach all media commerce sites what types of things you like? no. perhaps a community based repository for preferences makes more sense. watch dick hardt's message from oscon - it just makes sense.
http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/
I am -not- happy with amazon as of lately. I ordered a Canon EOS 20D and a Lexar memory card (~$1,500 total), cancelled the order a few minutes later (before billing or shipping or anything) because I wanted to change memory cards.. When I placed the new order, the credit card didn't have enough room left since they'd already charged it. No problem, I called and paid with a visa. The online system showed only the new order, but never showed it shipped. The next day, I received two cameras, apparently from the old order on the old card and the new order on the new card. The order status still didnt know the one camera had shipped, let alone two. The old order had disappeared completely because it was cancelled.
In any case, I tried to call their support (via the click to call me thing) and their system would call me (Estara.com) and when it tried to transfer me to amazon I'd get a fast busy.. So I tried about 15 times, and it finally blocked me as an abuser. Very nice.
I gave it a new number and got through, and the pakistani representative assured me i had not received one camera, let alone two.. After a while of arguing I hung up and emailed instead, which didn't get me a response.. So I called the next day and talked to another pakistani who while continually saying 'this was by our hand' never really got things fixed. She said she'd schedule a ups pickup and email me more information.. A day later, no email and no UPS pickup.. So I called back and they're going to send a ups shipping label which I should get in three days and itll go back ups ground.. So in 10 days, when they receive the extra camera, I can get my $1,500 back. Meanwhile, during the thanksgiving shopping rush yesterday and for the christmas shopping season, I'm $1,500 short, and am going to miss my rent payment.
On top of that, amazon closed my account because they thought someone else accessed it. When I called about that, they said theyd probably closed it to keep my cards from being charged again.
So f**k you amazon!
Somewhere, somehow, there is a hurricane of advertising just waiting to annoy the Hell out of you. They will be marketing things like Star Wars collectables and case mods among other geeky things that you bought or searched for on Amazon. You will not be able to run, you will not be able to hide, Jamster will want to give you the latest Chewbacca ringtone.
So what does the wiki have to do with my profile? It seems like it's more specific to the product than to me. And since it's just free prose, it'll be rather difficult to do any funny shazingle to my profile by analyzing my wiki entries.
Fleur de Sel
yo. someone get me the link to jack thompson's book and the accompanying wiki, so everyone on slashdot can vandalize it ;)
(disclaimer: i do not condone the use of vandalism when dealing with idiots. still, those pictures were damn funny.)
This is not the first time Amazon has experimented with the wiki system. In 2003 they were working on a system called "Review Start". Users were allowed to submit their own review and make additions and edits to the product descriptions. The system was scrapped because Jeff Bezos thought it would hurt search indexing and ultimately Amazon sales. It will be interesting to see how the wiki model works for them.
I think the best (the most ironic ?) part is that I got modded "Redundant".
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Recommendations and alerts based on past purchases (or browses) seems pretty neat to me. I haven't looked really hard to see if it's there already, but what would make this even better is if it could be actively tuned. This would be particularly useful if it allowed you to remove certain categories. As an example, I recently bought some lesbian literature as a gift ... and now Amazon thinks I love lesbian literature. Whilst faintly amusing, I am not actually a lesbian (though I feel sure I would be if I were a girl, heh), and the main problem with this is that it dilutes the usefulness of the system.
This is gonna be really stupid I am sure, but can someone explain this troll?
:)
Thanks if you're willing
Wow... you got screwed over by an anonymous international corporation? Wow! I'm so surprised! But really, you won't get any sympathy from me. You want to not support your local economy so you can pinch a few pennies? Fine by me. You get what you deserve.
I really don't understand people who think that they can go to Amazon or Ebay in order to screw local retailers and save themselves a few bucks, yet get the same quality customer service. Customer service isn't free. Shop at a real store next time (even better... an independent retailer) and I can almost guarantee that you'd have much, much better service.
Someone find a patent on wiki and sue. You know you want to.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
I've been getting errors on Amazon pages as a result of the wiki (Javascript -- Null Value) on Safari with the last two MacOS systems. Amazon hasn't even responded to any of my messages about it, but I've got to say, even if an error is just harmless and can be bypassed by hitting "return," I'm not inclined to browse a site very often if I keep getting error pop-ups any more than if I'm getting ad pop-ups.
Anyone know if other OS/browser combos are causing problems?
gathering indivdual data will allow for target marketing for individual, etc /.'ers would usually be interested in
however, summing across individuals , i.e., from a population perspective, most folks fall into groups who have similarities w.r.t. purchasing interests
For example:
I would hazard a geuss that most
1. p0rn
2. p0rn
3. xscreensaver hacks
4. the workings of the linux kernel
5. crypto filesystems (keep p0rn safe)
6. ruby
7. how to get a job @ google
8. how to get women to notice they are alive
9. p0rn (again, 'cos they still didn't notice) & does it cause RSI/blindness ?
10. direct neural interfaces 'cos p0rn caused blindness
When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown in to the sea
I was wondering about that. Every Mac OS X Tiger system I have used to access Amazon via Safari has been giving me the same error. At first, I thought it was a PithHelmet rule.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
If you've bought a CD through Amazon.com which is copy controlled, this is a good opportunity to tag it as such by leaving a note in the wiki. For example, I did this here - nothing inflammatory, just a friendly note for others who are thinking about buying the CD. This is information that I personally would like to know before deciding to purchase a CD, and I expect some others here feel the same.
-----
Free P2P Backup, Windows & Linux
Maybe I'm just being stupid, but can anyone give me a link to the damn site? I can't find one anywhere, not even on Amazon's main site, or in the startlingly pathetic "help" page /. links to.
if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll);
if there is a way to remove items that were gifts from contributing to your profile, then it is not super obvious or one click easy. that may be most of the reason the recommendations i get are worthless to me personally. i don't care enough about having Old Man Amazon suggest more things for me to buy, so i never dug too far to figure out how to remove items or flag them as having been gifts.
does it not add them to your profile if you ship them to another address? i only used that a few times, but i never pondered if those had an influence on my Amazonian Profile (patent pending).
Tomorrow, we'll learn that Amazon has patented the Wiki. After all, they invented it, and even if they didn't invent it, they have given us so many other inventions that we should just shut up and let them get away with this patent.
Amazon sucks. Buy somewhere else. If you can't kick the amazon.com web site habit, use it for finding what you want and then buy somewhere else. BookBurro makes it simple and usually gets you a cheaper price as well.
Because the Canon Powershot 405x3ty will fill your needs, while the Canon Powershot 405x3tz won't?
What happens when I go to a local store, and none of the flatbed scanners on display are on SANE's supported list?
"Wikified items seem to be limited to certain categories, DVDs being one un-wikied realm."
Not really. It's scheduled for all categories, but the launch of this feature may temporarily conflict with the launch of others, thus it is dormant in some categories until various experiments settle.
I get very, very aggrivated at Amazon most of the time. I've found that unless you know EXACTLY what you are looking for when typing in your search text, the search is useless.
There used to be a day when you could literally just browse online on Amazon, and find things pretty easily. Now, with all the combined seaches and stuff, a simple search for a CD brings up 1000's of different matches, most of which have NOTHING to do with your CD or don't even contain the text of your search.
I usually Google for what I want, find the EXACT name of the item, then put it into Amazon's search.
Now Amazon will try to patent the Wiki concept. And we complain about Microsoft?!
... "the problem is choice"?
A company who patents obvious web-application technology is now freely using wiki technology (and getting publicity for it on what is now basically a webvertisement site). I can only continue not buying anything from them, trying to keep my rage in check.
Hah, no only kidding.
:|