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You Say Glitch, We Say Fail: Amazon Responds To De-Ranking Debacle
New York, 4:10 AM
Wed Dec 16
67 posts in the last 24 hours
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You Say Glitch, We Say Fail: Amazon Responds To De-Ranking Debacle |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
04/13/09
"Hello from Amazon.com.
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.
It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search.
Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.
Thank you for your understanding and we hope to see you again soon."
No apology. Thoughts?
04/13/09
Amazon, I loved you and you just broke my heart.
04/13/09
You stay classy, Books, Inc.
City Lights? Gimme a high-five on the back hand side!
Dog Eared Books, your proximity to tasty burritos and great prices gets you an extra gold star.
A Different Light? You don't really cater to my demographic, but I like that you're here and I like what you've done with the place.
04/13/09
OK, now you're just trying to make me feel bad for having to go to City Lights as a tourist destination rather than a regular stop in my hood.
04/13/09
Search functions often reveal things that one would like to filter out - an example is searching Google for say "penis" with SafeSearch On still yields adult content in addition to medical info that you might be searching for. Depending on how Amazon's search has been designed, the filter for adult content may engage at a different point or action of the algorithm then it should, for optimal efficacy. Of course, this may be by design, so that it doesn't impede search speed. Any of the subsystems that control content display, rating, and search behavior could add up to unintended results, under certain conditions - without any deliberate influence.
In short - I'm sure Amazon doesn't want to alienate its' gay customers, its' adult material customers, or its' more conservative customers - it wants to serve all of them. To do this, it will try to address their respective concerns. Simply, this may not always be easy, and people may take advantage of the weaknesses of the mechanisms in place to serve very disparate consumer elements.
"Getting it right" with a diverse customer base is actually akin to "rocket science."
04/13/09
04/13/09
[readersunited.com]
04/13/09
I'm telling everyone I know, and the people I know are the kinds of people who buy books.
04/13/09
Amazon Owns Abebooks:
[www.techcrunch.com]
04/13/09
And now this whole thing has made me reconsider ever shopping from them again. Pandering to the religious fanatics is one big sin in my book.
04/13/09
04/13/09
If Amazon is smart, it will strip all these things out, and get in the habit of just selling merchandise, instead of turning merchandise into social commentary.
04/13/09
04/13/09
04/13/09
04/13/09
Fakey! Heroin users don't have enough time/ambition to do something like this. All of a junky's time is spent a) sleeping b) vomiting c) searching for drugs d) doing said drugs. I call shenanigans!
04/13/09
04/13/09
04/13/09
04/13/09
[www.powells.com]
Also, if you're ever in Portland I highly recommend a visit to the brick & mortar store. When I was a kid and read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, I imagined if I ran away I'd go live in Powell's.
04/13/09