HN-Books • Hacker News Board

Re: HN-Books

#21

Post by microcentury » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:10 PM UTC

tickle_me_elmo wrote: post #18

wwortiz wrote: post #8

Is there any reason the links to books use javascript instead of a regular anchor?

To mask the affiliate links perhaps.

That was my thought. And if it's correct, it's not worth it given the aff link is visible at the Amazon page, and if there was ever a crowd that would know to check for it, this is it.

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with the aff links. Profit is fun.

Re: HN-Books

#22

Post by phpnode » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:11 PM UTC

Nice site Daniel, any chance of some RSS feeds or an API?, I'd love to integrate this with http://hackernewsers.com/books.html

Re: HN-Books

#23

Post by tomjen3 » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:14 PM UTC

listic wrote: post #20

user24 wrote: post #16

Feature request: Please detect user's country and use appropriate amazon locale. eg I need to see .co.uk links not .com

What is the practical difference for you between the sites? Do the books ship faster and cheaper for .co.uk? I wonder why wouldn't Amazon's backend just figure it automatically and just ship locally anyway.

Free freight is often on offer, but the real issue is that you don't need to pay import duty.

Re: HN-Books

#24

Post by acangiano » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:22 PM UTC

Very clever idea. If you are looking for a complimentary service to discover new books, you could signup with my site http://anynewbooks.com, and select categories like Programming or Business and Investing. The latter is one of my favorite categories, because there are always great new titles for it. (Warning for the tech crowd: you will receive one weekly email per category you pick, so don't go crazy. :))

Re: HN-Books

#25

Post by 9ec4c12949a4f3 » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:29 PM UTC

listic wrote: post #20

user24 wrote: post #16

Feature request: Please detect user's country and use appropriate amazon locale. eg I need to see .co.uk links not .com

What is the practical difference for you between the sites? Do the books ship faster and cheaper for .co.uk? I wonder why wouldn't Amazon's backend just figure it automatically and just ship locally anyway.

Not just that, but the product selection is different. For instance, I cannot buy my Joachim Witt CDs from amazon.com, I have to order from .de. I could not order some products from .ca and needed to use.com.

Granted, I haven't used amazon in about 3 years, they may have improved their global database system.

Re: HN-Books

#26

Post by rwolf » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:31 PM UTC

I really like it. One suggestion: changing the "How to" section to radios so I don't select two at once. As far as I can tell, any two "How to"s result in zero result.

Re: HN-Books

#27

Post by DanielBMarkham » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:35 PM UTC

rwolf wrote: post #26

I really like it. One suggestion: changing the "How to" section to radios so I don't select two at once. As far as I can tell, any two "How to"s result in zero result.

The combinations work, although not as much as I'd like

For instance, here's the list of books about how to tell people about your business and run a killer startup, for folks who already know a bit:

http://hn-books.com/#1=Q1V1&10=Q10V0&11=Q11V0&12...

Re: HN-Books

#28

Post by tfh » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:49 PM UTC

There were a few threads on non programming books too. You could add them to that list.

Re: HN-Books

#29

Post by acangiano » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 3:52 PM UTC

listic wrote: post #20

user24 wrote: post #16

Feature request: Please detect user's country and use appropriate amazon locale. eg I need to see .co.uk links not .com

What is the practical difference for you between the sites? Do the books ship faster and cheaper for .co.uk? I wonder why wouldn't Amazon's backend just figure it automatically and just ship locally anyway.

I spent a good deal of effort on the issue of Amazon locales for my book web app. There are quite a few reasons for this:

* Some books will exist in one locale but not in others;

* Some books will be in stock in a locale but not in others;

* Some books will have a different cover and/or slightly different edition if it's a UK or USA version;

* If you are buying the Kindle version, availability varies by country, but only UK residents can buy from the UK Kindle store.

* If you buy many books from the States and you live in the UK, you'll end up paying hefty import charges.

* Delivery from your closest Amazon is usually faster (provided the books are in stock) and free (or cheaper for expedite shipment).

If you go to the Staff Picks of the Week section of my site (http://anynewbooks.com/staff-picks/), you'll notice how under each book I'm forced to place up to 5 links (US, Canada, UK, Kindle international, UK Kindle). It may be slightly confusing, but in my experience international readers appreciate the effort (the rest of the world is quite sick of US only web apps to be frank).

Re: HN-Books

#30

Post by acangiano » Mon, Oct 18, 2010, 4:11 PM UTC

smackay wrote: post #19

user24 wrote: post #16

Feature request: Please detect user's country and use appropriate amazon locale. eg I need to see .co.uk links not .com

Better still would be the ability to select user country / language rather than have that decision taken for me. I am in Portugal and would like to be able to select my Amazon locale to be either the UK or USA and not my local Amazon site which is in France. EDIT: Just change .com to .co.uk and you'll get the same page on Amazon UK. Sadly the exchange rate seems to be $1 = £1 - at least for the few books I checked.

> just change .com to .co.uk and you'll get the same page on Amazon UK

This works for other locales as well, like Amazon.ca. However it will not work for Kindle ebooks.