My New Hobby

Well, it's not so much of a hobby, as George Carlin would put it--it doesn't cost money--so it's an 'interest.'

Breaking Amazon by using the Wishlist and Recommendations sections.

It's pretty simple, really.

Create an Amazon account (well, if you've ever purchased anything from them, you probably have one).

Here's the steps.

1. Create an account (if you haven't already)
2. Feed it information on what you have, by telling it what you own
3. Add some stuff to your cart
4. Browse around the site for a while and save some of your searches
5. Create a wishlist
6. Add stuff it wouldn't predict to it
7. Go to the Recommendations page
8. Add more stuff to your cart and/or wishlist
9. Repeat steps 6-9 until it can't recommend anything
10. Return a few days later and repeat steps 6-10 (yes, 10) until it also can't recommend anything

And now, my wishlist and my Recommendations page are so broken it either thinks I'm a lesbian technophile or...God knows what. (See yesterday's post as for why it thinks I'm female).

It takes about 2-3 hours per day, yes, and it doesn't always work.

But, you do get the added benefits of a wishlist you can share with friends (or in my case, the world entire) and family, for those who can't think of what to do for prezzies (presents and gifts aka loot), and it also gives you info on stuff you never knew existed and now can't ever live without.

A little Postscript:

No, I have nothing against Amazon. This is my second post about the site, true, but it is actually the case that I am a big fan of the all-things-in-existence-in-one-site marketplace (they are, after a fashion, pseudo-open-source inasmuch as they have a Software Development Kit (SDK)). Well, a big fan except for the fact that their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) leaves much to be desired (yeah, that last link is a bit of a shameless plug for the expert in the field of SEO, a very nice young woman I've met, who is quite the awesome).

A Post-Postscript

I broke Amazon's recommendations system in a New way.

Twice.

In four hours.