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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."
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.
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/
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.
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.
How the fuck can this be called spyware? I would have thought that spyware is, by definition, software that spys on your behaviour. This is a wiki, a web page. It doesn't run on your machine, and users have to wilfully input the information. There's nothing secretive about this at all. If Amazon want to search your contributions for keywords or something, then fine. But then it's called data mining. Not spyware.
Why not dispute the charges with your CC company? That'll get Amazon's attention in a hurry.
I keep an Amazon wish list. Given that I have a family, mortgage, loan payments, etc I often don't have the money to buy the things I want when I see them. I also have a poor memory for that sort of thing, so I keep the list so as to not forget what it was that I wanted.
Of course, I rarely get round to actually buying anything on my list, but that's another matter.
I also know someone who runs a forum-based website with a fair number of users who keeps an amazon wishlist. From time to time people will buy him stuff on it, as a way to say thanks for providing the site (which he does free of charge and in his own time).
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Firstly there *are* no 'local' stores any more - they're all part of big national chains.
Secondly, they all charge 25%-50% more than online charges, have fewer items available, and don't get me started on customer support - those idiots wouldn't know support if it hit them on the head.
I've had *far* better support from online retailers than I have ever had from 'local' stores.
You should have seen the rejected names list:
CashStream
Shut Up and Give Us Your Earnings
Christmas... Pony Up
Amazon Love Linky Winky
Obligatory Purchase
Comsume, You Gluttons!
Clown Anus Portal
Ha! We Have One-Click Patented! You Don't!
Real-Time Stock Link! Watch Stock Rise After Each Purchase
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Firstly there *are* no 'local' stores any more - they're all part of big national chains.
That's simply not true. I own quite a successful one, thank you.
Secondly, they all charge 25%-50% more than online charges, have fewer items available, and don't get me started on customer support - those idiots wouldn't know support if it hit them on the head.
25-50% more? I doubt that. They will be more expensive, sure, because they create good jobs, contribute to your economy, and give you a local place to get stuff. They're going to be more expensive. And, do you really NEED 100,000 different items to choose from? Are you buying 100,000 different items?
But, keep repeating what you're saying and one day you'll be right... there will be no more local stores.
The difference is that Amazon gives you options. You can turn off most, if not all of the features of Amazon. Amazon is also upfront about the data it collects and even provides handy little links to help items explaining what the data collected is used for. Amazon, to my knowledge, has never installed software on my machine.
Gator and Co use subterfuge and dishonest tactics to get programs installed on your computer. These programs are non-optional, disrupt other work that may be done on the computer, and are very difficult to completely remove.
The comparison is non-sensical.
Humorless sig goes here.
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?
And, do you really NEED 100,000 different items to choose from? Are you buying 100,000 different items?
No, I'm buying 1 item. But I need the correct one item. That's why a large selection is useful.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
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
"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.
BookBurro is spyware.
Laws are for people with no friends.
You aren't paying attention: we are actually quite selective in our anti-patent rants. Mostly, it's software patents, patents on life forms and DNA sequences, and business method patents we rant against, that is, the kinds of patents that aren't granted in most of the world, the kinds of patents that didn't use to be granted in the US, and the kind of patents that hamper progress and innovation.
I'm sorry for you that you don't understand what a threat these kinds of patents represent to a democracy, to property rights, and to a free market economy. Just be happy that other people worry about that sort of thing.
You think that's bad?
My company recently purchased another company for several billion dollars and one of the employees sent some sort of an email that was posted on our internal corporate page. It was referring to the culture of our company and how wonderful the language we used was.
One of the comments they made was that "doubleclicking" an idea is brilliant! Where "doubleclicking" means that you want to look at an idea in more detail or discuss something further. As in "let's take a few minutes to doubleclick that interesting idea before we move on".
What the HELL? Who the hell would use such an idiotic statement outside of . . . MAYBE marketing? If you talk like that, you might as well be one of those annoying tools that refers to not being able to find your screw driver as "I looked for a philips in my toolbox but it seems to be 404".
GAAAAAAAH.