The Geomancer

2/8/10

A Word on Infoquake....

Now that David Louis Edelman's Geosynchron, the final book in the Jump 225 series,  is out, we are getting emails from folks who can't find the first book in the trilogy, Infoquake, on Amazon. The reason for this: Amazon has just changed their search results in a baffling and frustrating manner. Now, under the stated purpose of offering "more choices" to consumers, they only display what they deem the "best edition" of a volume in a search string, rather than all editions. (The "best edition" seems to mean the most recent as far as we can tell.)

Thus, in the case of Edelman's Infoquake, the Solaris mmpb, being the most recent, is the only edition they will return in a search. The Pyr edition is still in there, but it's difficult to find. You have to click on "paperback" in the "formats" box, and then it will come up.

But just in case you are having trouble, here it is. And here is Multireal.

I hope that Amazon will restore the full capabilities of their search engine, since the resource that their database used to represent was one of their primary strengths. Meanwhile, I see that the Pyr edition of Infoquake pops right up on Barnes & Noble and Borders.

8 comments:

  1. OK, I've noticed something odd about the listings recently and didn't understand what it was about. Amazon seems to be all about screwing up this past year, from the rankings removal on the LGBT books, to the 1984 recall, to AMacmillazon. Although I suppose this is more standard business than the others.

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  2. Ah, but the Macmillan failure was in making it hard for customers to buy books, and now their revamping of their search results does the same thing! They really shouldn't be taking all the pleasure and usability out of their browse and buy experience... If B&N had a better search engine...

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  3. Gotcha, point taken. I wonder then, does it always point to the most recent, or does it point to the most profitable for them? Or does that mean most recent is most profitable?

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  4. Well the Solaris Infoquake is a mmpb...

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  5. Hmm, I just went to Amazon-Books-Sciencefiction&Fantast and did a search for Infoquake. The only result I got was the mass market edition - by Pyr.

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  6. By Pyr? Ha.

    Again, after removing all the buy buttons on the whole Macmillan catalog, the last thing they need are these database screw ups and changes making it hard to find what you are looking for.

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  7. Lou, you have a typo in the article. It should be "manner" and not "manor".

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  8. Doh! Thanks Clay. Fixed.

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