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October 19, 2006

New Amazon Functionality

In most cases, when I see a book I want to purchase, I do a Nike and just do it. Recently, I noticed some new functionality on the Amazon.com web site. First, is an author interview that is included for books like Tough Choices: A Memoir by Carly Fiorina. Not only is the text included but a video of the author as well. This is really interesting and a great new service that exposes the author in a different way. The second component is the book search utility that actually searches the full text of the book and not just the metadata. This was very useful when trying to find a page number for a reference that I forgot on a recent paper. I searched the text and the page popped right up. Of course, I tried it again on Seth Godins book: The Purple Cow. I searched for househusband that appeared on page 90. Sure enough, the search utility found the correct page and showed me a partial sentence where the word was found. Unfortunately, the entire page couldn’t be seen due to copyright issues. Still, this is an innovative use of the technology and content you already have.

Posted by Todd at October 19, 2006 11:55 AM