Amazon.com now offering full-text searching for over 120,000 books?!

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I'm impressed, not that I've tried it yet.

― Al Andalous, Friday, 24 October 2003 02:31 (twenty-two years ago)

It's been really fucking with my searches lately, though, because I'll get 120 hits for something, only two of which are what I'm looking for. (Maybe there's a way to turn it off; I didn't look.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 24 October 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The only way I know to turn it off is to go to the Author/Title/Subject search page & run your search on just the field you're interested in: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ats-query-page/

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 24 October 2003 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, how did I not know they even had that page? Thank you, that's bookmarked; I've been searching just from the front page, for the most part.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 24 October 2003 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I just searched my own name and two of the AMG guides popped up. I'm now in the Amazon DB! Wooohooooooo!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 24 October 2003 03:25 (twenty-two years ago)

i got 120 hits for my name ;-P

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 24 October 2003 03:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh dear, typing in my name gets you Native American Healing, Statistical Thermodynamics, and Electronic Warfare Receiver Systems.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 24 October 2003 03:35 (twenty-two years ago)

o, you need to put yer name in " "'s. i now get a grand total of 0.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 24 October 2003 03:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, people on other websites earlier today were noting how you could amazon yourself now as well as google yourself. Well, assuming any books you're in have been scanned into the search indexes.

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 24 October 2003 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

The last time I could amazon myself as well as google myself, [your joke goes here]

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 24 October 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I like that Tep is apparently involved in Native American Electronic Warefare Healing. It boggles the mind. ;-)

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 24 October 2003 05:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Hack the planet, man. Faster, wasichu, kill, kill!

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 24 October 2003 05:16 (twenty-two years ago)

And they still won't let me download the photo of Nigel Spivey from the back of his book's jacket? Bastards.

― kate (kate), Friday, 24 October 2003 07:28 (twenty-two years ago)

PLUG

OUP.com might have one cos we publishing him soon, oyez. I prrofchecked a catalogue with his mug in yestaday

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 24 October 2003 08:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just wondering the other day when we were going to get this. God, the world moves so fast these days.

I think it's terrifically exciting. I'm afraid the first thing I tried searching on was 'Belle and Sebastian'. There were at least two novels mentioning them. Amazing.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Famous interweb journalist in double life shockah

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

A search for "North Bellmore," my dull-but-lovable old home town, I find that Lenny Bruce spent about eight years of his childhood there (which I sort of knew) and that Rudy Giuliani lived there with his parents for a time (which I didn't know).

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

assuming any books you're in have been scanned into the search indexes

I'm assuming that no scanning is going on, as that would be mentally cost ineffective. They are getting the text files from publishers, yes?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:25 (twenty-two years ago)

(x-post, I guess)

Plus a local Bellmore luncheonette was the site of a Supreme Court case involving pornography and minors, and there used to be a jazz club called the Mandalay (and here I am thinking all Bellmore used to be in the '40's was potato and carnation fields!)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm assuming that no scanning is going on, as that would be mentally cost ineffective. They are getting the text files from publishers, yes?

You'd think. Really, most publishers aren't set up to provide good scans of pages & stuff, just as, say, random kitchen equipment company isn't necessarily set up to provide good product photos for ecommerce websites. You need images that are big enough, have uniform contrast, etc. From a local paper:

More than 190 publishers have permitted having their books scanned for searching and viewing on Amazon's site. Plans call for expanding the number of fully searchable books, Kessel said. He wouldn't say how many titles Amazon stocks but characterized the searchable 120,000 books -- about as many as the average real-world bookstore carries -- as a "very relevant" portion of the full catalog.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/145281_amazon24.html

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 24 October 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

That's just extraordinary. I haven't actually viewed any pages because the US version of Amazon isn't liking my debit card at the moment and it needs it for some reason.

If they've scanned 120 000 books with an average of what, 200 pages each at least, and then OCRing them (and checking them?) so that they can be searchable, that must take so much time and money I am totally baffled about about the whole project. It is my conclusion that Amazon are in league with dark forces.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Color me impressed!

I tried "It was the best of times, it was the worst of time" and what was the first hit?
Naturally it was: Time Management from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule and Your Life

Somehow I suspect Amazon's server is laughing at me behind my behind

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Friday, 24 October 2003 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Also interesting: a book where a guy named Chuck Eddy is "the sleaziest private eye in Boston."

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 24 October 2003 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn! So that's how he can afford all those records.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 October 2003 23:49 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

Amazon and Google have extended the technology into a new search engine, a9.com, allowing you to search the web and books at once.

It still doesn't like my debit card though, so I can't view the actual pages. Are any other non-US people having this problem? I've bought stuff with that card on amazon.com before.

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 17 April 2004 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh - it's working now. Hurrah!

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 17 April 2004 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh no, it isn't. I just get blank pages.

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 17 April 2004 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

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