[AccessD] OT: Amazon book searches

Jim Hewson hewson.jim at gmail.com
Thu Dec 10 10:56:52 CST 2009


I did something similar and got 850 books on the returned list.
I put in C# in quotes in the keywords field.
The second entry on the return had "relevant" searches with C# as one of the
choices.
I clicked that and a list of only C# books showed.
Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 9:32 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Amazon book searches

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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