[AccessD] OT: Amazon book searches

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Thu Dec 10 09:31:43 CST 2009


Dan,

 > In the keywords field enter C#, then push the orange search button.
 >
 > You'll get a page full of all C# books!

You do indeed.

LOL... look at the number of hits.  Do you REALLY believe that there are 14,220 books on C#?

Now instead of "sort by" relevance select "Sort By" Avg Customer Review.

Are you interested in "taking charge of your fertility"?  ;)  Well, perhaps but that is another subject.

How about cosmos by Carl Sagan?  As an amateur astronomer I am indeed interested, but not when I am 
searching for C# books.

Billboard of the top 40 hits anyone?  I for one am not remotely interested.

What in the heck does any of that have to do with C#?  The answer appears to be that the search 
engine strips off the # and returns anything with... C anywhere in the name or description.  Wow, 
how useful is THAT?

So yea, if you don't care about what other people think about the books, then you can indeed get 
hundreds (thousands?) of hits on C#.  OTOH if you immediately attempt to see only the "best" books, 
then that search is not so helpful.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Dan Waters wrote:
> John - try this:
> 
> Under Search or Category, select Books.
> Then select Advanced Search (directly under 'Search').
> In the keywords field enter C#, then push the orange search button.
> 
> You'll get a page full of all C# books!
> 
> Are you buying a Christmas present for someone?
> 
> 
> Good Luck,
> Dan




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