On Sat, 22 Apr 2023 16:43:58 -0700, Dan Koren wrote:
On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 8:46:06???AM UTC-7, Mr. Mike wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb28KyMakvc
Most people have figured this out
without any help from Dave Hurwitz.
It would be too arduous to listen to a 17 minute talking
head, so I just looked at the comments, and find one useful,
my comments in brackets:
1. As mentioned the search engine seems to have gone downhill
recently. Not only does it mix in products from other
categories, but it mixes downloads and LPs (and even cassettes)
in the listing with CDs. There needs to be a RELIABLE way to
narrow the search to a specific product format. To make matters
worse, each track of a download is listed as a separate entity,
so finding the one listing for the physical CD among the 10 or
more individual track listings of the download is an added burden
(especially when they all typically use the same artwork in the
search results).
2. The entry for a CD will often not list the contents.
Sometimes there is a photo of the back cover of the CD packaging,
but often not. Even when there is a back photo, it may be
inadequate in the case of a box set. I like to know what I'm
buying. (This complaint applies to many ebay listings as well.).
One used to encounter some risible attempts to provide a "list of
the songs" on the CD by listing the tempo markings of the
movements -- very helpful to see the contents listed as " Allegro
Adagio Presto".
3. I don't object to the customer comments. Yes, there are a lot
of comments that are useless praise posted by someone who has
never heard another recording of the same work, but often the
comments are the only way to overcome the lack of contents
listing. John Fowler's content listings are often especially
helpful in the case of box sets. In time one learns to separate
the useless from the valuable.
[He means reviews, all comments to reviews were deleted by
Amazon without warning in 2020, messing up all of Fowler's
reviews up to 2020 because he included comments in his
reviews, and would refer directly to his comments.]
4. What is with the "Nog geen afbeelding beschikbaar" message
when no image is available for a listing? I've nothing against
the Dutch, but one would think a company as large as Amazon could
make the effort to use the local language(s) on each of their
websites.
[Google Translate says it is Dutch for "No image available yet";
Amazon uses it perhaps to help steer people away from the CD
and steer you towards something else. Many of the CDs I
bought through Amazon had pictures when I bought them that
Amazon now says are not pictured yet.]
5. Even when you find the listing for the product you want,
Amazon does not usually give the manufacturer's catalog number.
No doubt this is to make it more difficult to do a general Google
search and find another source, but it also makes it more
difficult to find information (e.g., track listings, recording
dates, etc.) not present in the Amazon listing.
[Amazon always kept the catalog numbers as well as the
bar code secret. If you already have the bar code, without
dashes or spaces, it may be the only way of finding
something on Amazon.]
[To add another way Amazon seeks to discourage sales, is
that with most third-party sellers Amazon now won't let you
see theseller's inventory, which in the past led to much
purchasesfor me sometimes.]
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