[WEB4LIB] Amazon's Plogs

[Karen Coyle]

Fascinating. I didn't see the "Plog" word, but I got a very personalized
page. Oddly enough, although they know I've never bought a DVD from
them, they gave me a big list of movies to buy. Do log into your account
and click on "Improve my recommendations." It shows you a list of the
subject headings for every page you've gone to (or purchased from, I
can't tell which). I've printed off all of these pages and would love to
compare with someone else to figure out how much is really
"personalized."

Now I'm glad that I do most of my book purchases through Powells, not
Amazon, although because of a quirk Amazon now thinks that I am in
desperate need of writing style guides and tracts on literacy. One thing
I suspect, however, which is that this kind of marketing works the same
way as fortune-telling -- you're highly impressed when it is right and
tend to forget when it is wrong.

kc

On Thu, 2004-06-03 at 14:22, K. G. Schneider wrote:
> Did anyone else open Amazon today to find they had a "Plog?" "Your
> Amazon.com Plog is a diary of events that will enhance your shopping
> experience, helping you discover products that have just been released,
> track changes to your orders, and many other things. Just like a blog, your
> Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order. When we think we have
> something interesting or important to tell you, we'll post it to your Plog."
> 
> My plog entries for today were rather monotonous, as I had just ordered the
> same three books each for six staff, and Amazon apparently thinks (not so
> far from the mark) that I might have difficulty remembering something I did
> yesterday, and faithfully recreated this purchasing history, six times over.
> It did make me wonder what the page would look like if I had ordered 100
> books each for 600 staff, or if a user's Plog will unbeknownst to them show
> up on a public screen in, oh, say, a library. 
> 
> They include a page explaining blogging, and listing about a dozen
> blogs--might be nice to see a library blog on that list.
> 
> Karen G. Schneider
> kgs at bluehighways.com
> 
> 
> 
-- 
-------------------------------------
Karen Coyle
Digital Library Specialist
http://www.kcoyle.net
Ph: 510-540-7596 Fax: 510-848-3913
--------------------------------------