AWS Text Stream Search

Amazon just added a new method to its XML API called TextStreamSearch. This method lets you send an arbitrary bit of text to Amazon, they analyze it for keywords, and then make product recommendations based on that text. This would let you send, say, an entire weblog post and get product recommendations based on that text. I think it could be useful for creating very targeted advertising based on a page's contents. (Sort of like I'm doing on my quotes page.) You could also monitor IM conversations and pop-up product recommendations based on what people are talking about. I haven't tried it yet, and it'll be interesting to see how accurate it is. [via AWS newsletter]

Update: I created a page to test the Text Stream search. You can try it yourself. (There seems to be a limit on the number of characters, but I haven't narrowed it down to exact numbers yet.)
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Comments

It doesn't seem to pay any attention to names, which is odd.

Try this:
"Just checked for new posts from Justin Hall, Kottke, Matt Haughey and Meg Hourihan."

And note the complete lack of pertinent titles.
by Dinah on Sep 25th, 2003 at 3:00 pm
You're right, you'd think they'd tie in an author search with the text.
by pb on Sep 25th, 2003 at 3:25 pm
Also, in just about every search I've done it has recommended the book "Boogers are my Beat" by Dave Barry. It shouldn't be relevant to any text. Anyone else getting this book a lot?
by pb on Sep 25th, 2003 at 4:04 pm
I've pasted in a wide variety of weblog posts and I'm seeing the same books again and again. I wouldn't call the books "related" to the post content in any way either. It looks to me like they have some tuning to do on this feature. I think it'll be very interesting once it's giving relevant results.
by pb on Sep 25th, 2003 at 5:58 pm
I've been doing some testing with this new feature as well, and "Boogers are my Beat" comes up with incredibly frequency. I haven't spent much time trying to figure out why.
by Michael Buffington on Sep 26th, 2003 at 9:20 am
Hi! You're reading a single post on a weblog by Paul Bausch where I share recommended links, my photos, and occasional thoughts.
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