Monday, November 01, 2004

Amazon.com: website info: faughnan.com .... and google.com

Amazon.com: website info: faughnan.com/

Amazon's A9 toolbar has an "about button" (Alexa of course). I tried it on my personal page (faughnan.com) and it took me to an Amazon.com listing for my web site! So I have an ASIN ID, just like a book: B00006E3JP. One can now use Amazon to write reviews on web sites. Mine had not been reviewed, so I couldn't resist contributing the first entry:
Ok, so it's my web site. The astounding part was playing with the (Firefox!) A9 toolbar and following the link -- to discover that my personal hobby/obsession web site has an ASIN number (B00006E3JP). So am I an author now?

This is really a fascinating development.

The data displayed is interesting. The domain probably dates to 1995. A9 lists the site as 'clinical systems design' because that appeared in an early domain registration (it's almost impossible to change that early registration information).

Somehow they also list my home phone number, but with an old area code. The fax number doesn't work either. The email address is a joke address that once belonged to my dog (she got too much spam, so we jointly agreed to delete the address).

I shall have to create a blog posting with this review; I do enjoy the self-referential aspect of all this.
It does look like Amazon is going to leverage their review technologies to rate web pages and augment their search. Here's the page for Google! This page lists Larry Page's (Google founder, now worth billions) contact info
Larry Page
2400 E. Bayshore Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
US
+1 650 318 0200, Fax: +1 650 618 1499
info@google.com
There are only 135 reviews for Google, which suggests this is a rather new toy.

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