Patent Law

Amazon Commits Feed Malpractice

By Erik J. Heels

More reasons to proofread your feed.

I subscribe to Amazon's New Music Releases feed, but Amazon omits basic information from its feed, such as the name of the artist. The NAME. Of the ARTIST. Is NOT IN THE FEED. This is feed malpractice.

Ray LaMontagne's new album "Gossip In The Grain" is getting great reviews, but you'd never know it from Amazon's feed. Here's how that album looks in Amazon's feed:

And here's how it looks on Amazon's website:

What's missing from the feed? Lots:

1. the name of the artist
2. user ratings
3. number of customer reviews
4. number of customer discussions
5. release date
6. in-stock status
7. sample clips

Brilliant!

Yes, Amazon has product feeds. But they are difficult to find on Amazon's website. And if you're going to omit basic info such as the name of the artist from you feed, why bother?

See also:

• RollingStone.com's Feed Hacked
  Plus how to find RollingStone 5-star reviews.
• Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Gives Up On Blogging, Switches To Partial Feed
  Dilbert Blog gets the Freakonomics treatment, becomes a footnote in blogging history.
• Illegal Feeds And Betting Against The Internet
  The clue train has left the station, and most publishers aren't on board.
• Proofread Your Own Feed
  Because your readers can't read your mind.
• Death To Partial Feeds
  It doesn't matter where your content is read!

Full post as published by Erik J. Heels on October 16, 2008 (boomark / email).