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Wednesday, May 19, 2004:

Amazon.com: Books Search Results

Is anyone else finding the "Search Inside This Book" "feature" at Amazon incredibly annoying?

It's not the feature itself, which is actually kind of cool, but the fact that when you do a regular search for, say, an author, instead of getting a list of that author's books, you get a list that may include that authors books, along with a TON of books that probably have absolutely nothing to do with what you're looking for.

For instance, I just did a search on "John Harvey" to find out which of Mr. Harvey's books I have read, and which ones I might have missed.

I got a list of 28,844 books all of which, apparently, somewhere in their pages include both the words "John" and "Harvey."

For instance, a book about Keith Richards, which mentions John Lennon and Laurence Harvey, and one about Kurt Cobain which includes in its index references to a Harvey Ottinger and a John Pareles.

Let's see, what else? A handbook about Utah. The "Moon Watcher's Companion." "Close Calls with Baseball Immortality" and "Plants of the Gulf and San Juan Islands and Southern Vancouver Island." Oh, and "White Mischief: A Cultural History of Cocaine."

None of which tell me anything at all about John Harvey.

[ Posted by Willa at 11:21 AM ] link me

 

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