onfocus

Cool new Amazon feature: Amazon.com Citations.

Amazon scans every book in the Search Inside the Book program looking for phrases that match the names of books in our catalog. We make a note of these "citations" and display them to you...

For example, a book I'm currently reading—Moral Animal—contains references to 96 other books. This feature can help situate books within a larger context than the Customers who bought this item also bought-list can. I hope they make this data available through the API so we can see some Touchgraph maps of book-citation connections.

And they should start scraping the URLs mentioned within books too. And while I'm wishing, how about citing weblogs that cite books? ;)

Public Service Announcement: If you link to your Amazon Wish List on your site, you may need to change that link. I've noticed that standard Wish List links are not working lately—but you won't know whether or not it's working if you have the Amazon cookie. For example, when I click on this link in my browser on my computer:

http://amazon.com/o/wishlist/3FOF79BIVB2XX

I see my Wish List. But if I click on that link in another browser (with no Amazon cookie, or a different cookie), I see a generic Wish List page. And more importantly, so will anyone else clicking the link. To link directly to your Wish List so others can see it, change wishlist in the URL to registry, like so:

http://amazon.com/o/registry/3FOF79BIVB2XX

Now the URL will point to my Wish List no matter what, and everyone can buy me stuff! Test out your own Wish List link yourself with various browsers (especially one without an Amazon cookie) to make sure you have a good link. (Note: The o in the URLs above is a shortcut for exec/obidos—just one of the many hints you'll find in Amazon Hacks. ;) )

Amazon has changed the status of Amazon Hacks from "pre-order" to "Usually ships within 24 hours". If you order right now you could be reading all 100 Amazon tips & tools in just a few days. (You can read a few of the hacks earlier at the hacks site.) I think this means you should be able to pick up Amazon Hacks at your local bookstore later this week. I'm anxious to see the book in its final form!

In fact, I can't wait for my copy so I just ordered one from Amazon. That's probably the fastest way to get the book right now.