September 24, 2004
Curious George: How Does Amazon Create A 'Related Search'?
So, I'm reading this discussion at MetaFilter, and the mention of a specific book (an annotated version of "The Hunting of the Snark") catches my eye.
So, I go to Amazon and I search for the title "hunting of the snark", when the results come back, the only related search it lists is "annotated snark".
Now, it turns out that they don't even have the book listed (it was published in the UK, and Amazon.co.uk still has 1 copy used), but clearly enough people must have searched for it to cause this. (Assuming that Amazon adds these automatically.)
I'm curious how many searches it takes before a related search is added automatically, and if this particular related search existed before the relevant MetaFilter posting.
The alternate question is, how many book purchases does the average MetaFilter post result in?
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I have no idea, but I've read the book. Martin Gardner was great, of course, but in this case, as I recall, the annotations got rather out of hand, with speculations linking 'boojum' to 'bomb' ( the Bomb, you know) and 'om' and what have you. Actually now I read that back it sounds quite interesting - must go up to the attic and see if I can find it. Interesting that in the Mefi thread, JollyWanker mentions having adapted it for the stage. The only stage version I know of was one by Mike Batt of Wombles fame - could that be JollyWanker's true identity???