Sonny Software

Hi there

Since last update of Bookends when I try to do an online search on Amazon uk I get an ID Amazon associate error which I haven't before (it still work well on Amazon US and France).

I understood that this is managed by Bookends and not by myself

Is there a correction to apply ?

thanks
Regards

BKantique

No, Amazon has terminated our access to some of the global sites. I've reapplied but are waiting on them. If they don't allow it we may have to discontinue access to foreign (non-US) Amazon sites.

Jon
Sonny Software

If I may add this: I experienced the same with Delicious Library which had lost access to many non-US Amazon sites quite a while ago.

When I could not use the German Amazon site—at this very moment still working in Bookends, fingers crossed!—for bibliography data anymore I set Delicious Library to Amazon US, mainly because I do read English books too. But to my surprise with Amazon US I got even hits for the vast majority of my German books and movies. One might assume that it works even better for UK books.

So it’s bad but maybe not that bad. While it is of course bad in general to be hooked to a commercial provider that withdraws access at whim.

Ok thanks Jon for this reply hope you'll get it again.

At the moment I still can use US site (and France's one) to get my references so not critical just that sometimes on UK site I can have more Kindle edition than on US site

Amazon US is also not allowing to pull any info... I get this (despite having conducting zero searches prior

Yes, I know. Amazon is throttling many accounts, using some algorithm to mete out access as a function of how many sales are to users who access their content (usually from a web site, but in this case after access from Bookends). If you keep trying to access Amazon.com a search might sneak through (it does for me). If they don't relax this policy we may have to remove Amazon as an online source.

Jon
Sonny Software

Having the same problem here in Canada.

This seems short sighted on Amazon's part. Searching Amazon is an opportunity to see what they are charging for a book and possibly purchase it.

I don't suppose there is anyway we can make our concerns known to Amazon?

Thanks for a great product.

I think Amazon is well aware of what they're doing (google for Amazon and throttling, you'd find lots of discussions about this). It affects a lot of people.

Jon
Sonny Software

Ah, that is unfortunate.

Hi Jon,

Now that the Amazon autofil option is rendered useless..... may be you could add an autofill option for Google Books or LoC (using existing data (title or author/title) as a search basis?

Given time. I want to see how this plays out with Amazon.

Jon
Sonny Software

Ugh, that's a major bummer.

Typical Amazon fashion. Alas, they are somewhat the monopoly for world-wide data on books. I, for one, would be willing to pay a small fee for unlimited access to their database. But it looks like they are not offering that anyway, right? De-throttling for money?

Thinking about alternatives: I also use LibraryThing.com. Those folks seem to be nice, capable, and the organization seems to be halfway non-profit. Maybe there is an avenue here, chatting with them how they deal with Amazon throttling?
They leverage several online databases for their users when adding books. Also, they are compiling their own database for book searches, see here:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Overcat

Maybe Bookends can collaborate with them. Might be worth a try.

Alas, books via a DOI query is only in its beginnings and solely depends on publishers to make the effort to register DOIs for their books.
https://www.doi.org/factsheets/ISBN-A.html

Library of Congress was a PITA when I still used Endnote. Slow, and of course no non-US titles. Fickle search engine in regard to ISBNs, too.

Don't forget Google Books. No source is perfect, but we'll probably move toward using that to retrieve books by ISBN.

Jon
Sonny Software

Hi

Hope everybody are safe on your side

Just wandering if Bookends finally lost his access to Amazon France as from few days I got the message we got for other Amazon countries ?

Thanks

Bkantique

Yup, Amazon.fr and .de are now throttling searches, too. They will be removed as search options in the next Bookends update (i.e. very soon).

Jon
Sonny Software