| OverviewAmazon Hacks is a collection of
real-world tips, tricks, and full-scale solutions to
practical uses of Amazon.com and the Amazon Web Services API
. The book offers a variety of interesting ways for power
users to get the most out of Amazon and its community, for
Associates to hone their recommendations for better linking
and more referral fees, for researchers to mine the enormous
amount of information in Amazon's data store, and for
developers to integrate Amazon Web Services into their
applications and services. Editorial ReviewsAmazon.comAt its core, Amazon.com is a great big database concerned with lots of stuff--books, of course, but also tools, clothing, films on DVD, kitchen equipment, and lots and lots (and lots) of Harry Potter paraphernalia. Want to wear an Anna Kournikova exercise brassiere while juicing celery (presumably with considerable vigor)? Amazon can help. Need a cricket bat, radar gun, dietary fiber supplement, or vibrasonic molechaser? Amazon has what you need. Which is all great, but the real value of Amazon.com isn't that these things are in the database. The real value of this site lies in the information about all that stuff--reviews, sales rankings, recommendations, and the like--and the large number of ways to access it. Amazon Hacks explains how to get the most out of Amazon.com as an ordinary customer with a Web browser and as a software developer interested in the site's considerable collection of Web Services. In Amazon Hacks, Paul Bausch documents most of the avenues Amazon.com has opened up for exploration of the database. A lot of his coverage borders on the obvious: Sections on how to "Power-Search for Books" and "Put an Item Up for Bid at Amazon Auctions" aren't too different from Amazon's own explanatory articles. Coverage of how to add an Amazon search box to your own site, and add Amazon Associates item links to various kinds of Weblogs (including Blosxom and Moveable Type) are much handier. Bausch really shines when explaining Amazon.com's Web Services (AWS), the remotely accessible software interfaces that enables programs to search the database. He includes AWS-enabled programs in PHP, Python, and Perl. --David Wall Topics covered: How to use Amazon.com as a Web surfer, Web site publisher, and software developer. Detailed coverage goes to advanced product search techniques, managing the characteristics associated with your Amazon login, selling through Amazon Auctions and zShops, and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API for Perl, PHP, and Python. | Product DescriptionAmazon Hacks is a collection of tips and tools for getting the most out of Amazon.com, whether you're an avid Amazon shopper, Amazon Associate developing your online storefront and honing your recommendations for better linking and more referral fees, seller listing your own products for sale on Amazon.com, or a programmer building your own application on the foundation provided by the rich Amazon Web Services API. Shoppers will learn how to make the most of Amazon.com's deep functionality and become part of the Amazon community, maintain wishlists, tune recommendations, "share the love" with friends and family, etc. Amazon Associates will find tips for how best to list their titles, how to promote their offerings by fine tuning search criteria and related titles information, and even how to make their store fronts more attractive. And the real power users will use the Amazon API to build Amazon-enabled applications, create store fronts and populate them with items to be picked, packed and shipped by Amazon. And just about anyone can become a seller on Amazon.com, listing items, deciding on pricing, and fulfilling orders for products new and used. |
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Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 18 reviews. Surprisingly good and very informative, 2006-09-18 Reviewer rating: I've been using Amazon for years and am an active poster of reviews. I was astounded to see just how much I didn't know about Amazon's resources and capabilities.
Even if you're not interested in programming hacks or using Amazon's API, this is still an extremely informative book for any Amazon user.
It provides excellent insight into how Amazon works and the wealth of information you can derive from Amazon.
Jerry | Amazon's improving usability renders this book unnecessary, 2006-08-18 Reviewer rating: When this book was first published, it might have been somewhat relevant. However, Amazon has continuously upgraded the usability of its site to the point that where the answer to any question you might actually have about its features is now on the website, including forums where you can discuss individual books, and even a forum where users discuss the well guarded formula for ranking Amazon reviewers, which one clever person came up with via experimentation. Also, Amazon's interface and features are constantly being changed and upgraded, so that some of the specific information in this book is no longer correct. I give this book two stars only because it is well written, but I strongly advise against buying it. | Nothing special, 2006-02-28 Reviewer rating: All of the information in the book could easily be obtained (for free!) from the Amazon Web Services website. In fact, all I learned from this book was that Amazon's online documentation was VERY complete! | Waste of Money, 2005-11-12 Reviewer rating: I can only assume that the positive reviews were written by relatives and friends of the author. This book is only useful if you are totally unable to search a database by typing in "rolling pin", and if you are interested in doing a lot of programming to accomplish simple and mostly useless tasks. As a seller on Ebay, I found nothing of use in this book, and, as a purchaser, I am capable of finding a "flashlight" without doing a lot of programming. This book is highly oversold. Save your money.
| A super guide to Amazon!, 2005-07-26 Reviewer rating: This book covers a wide range of tips and tricks for using Amazon. These include at the beginning a range of advice for people who want to know more about shopping on Amazon and using the Friends and Family area and Wish Lists, but you will get a lot more out of it if you have an Amazon Associate account and Developer token with web hosting which supports the use of PHP, as many of the scripts provided only work if you're able to upload them and use them online.
I am a little puzzled that nowhere in the book is it stated that you should not direct link to Amazon's images - all the hacks around the use of images involve direct links even though it states clearly in the Associate terms of service that you should upload images to your own server rather than linking directly to images on Amazon.
Many of the tips are aimed at amazon.com but most will work on all the Amazon sites.
It's a great book and well worth keeping to hand even if you're just browsing around adding to your shopping cart and/or Wish List!
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