The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Sunday, December 26, 2004  

WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?
The Warped Mind of Amazon.com

A service provided by Amazon.com that I normally find very useful, helpful, and intriguing, namely the embedded recommendations software that serves up suggested merchandise offerings in which a customer might be interested (based on past purchases, wish-list selections, and the user’s own reports of ownership of books and other merchandise) suddenly has gone haywire.

Today my recommended books list is (over)populated by such authors as Judy Blume, Cecily von Ziegesar, Zoey Dean, Janet Evanovich of “Stephanie Plum” fame, Meg Cabot of the “Princess Diaries” series, and Peggy Parish and Fritz Siebel of “Amelia Bedelia” notoriety.

Amazon.com apparently has decided that I’m an adolescent or pre-adolescent girl, and at that the Alpha Girl I never was and never would have hoped to become. And honestly, I have no idea where the company is getting this from.

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