Statistically Improbable Phrases

[Teresa Edgerton]

SIPs -- Can anyone explain to me the value of this very odd recent feature on Amazon US?

I suppose in theory this would allow one to look up fairly obscure bits of knowledge, but when the Statistically Improbable Phrases themselves usually turn out to be something like "in the dining room" or "two chimneypots" it's difficult to imagine that the whole exercise is really worth while.

 

[Chimeco]

I googled "SIPs amazon" and found a link that describes it well. Basically it's a phrase tracker that monitors phrases used "commonly in one book", and "infrequently" in others.
It's basically for keeping track of phrase evolution. Ever wondered who coined "that" phrase? I think that's what they're trying to archive. Amazon basically leads the world in consumer monitoring and tracking. Their consumer model is a science to them and they exploit it concisely and extremely effectively (vastly outpacing their closest rivals).

I seriously would not be surprised if SIPs began appearing in custom"ated" newsletters to individuals, based off their reading habits, some day in the near future. If they tailor an ad in such a manner that it reads like a book from your favorite author, I'm sure you'd be more inclined to pay attention and possibly purchase an item. (Amazon is a scary machine).

 

[Amber]

That is scary. Amazon want to rule the world. Presumably they also want to keep a record of reading habits, so if someone starts buying war books on how to make bombs frequently they'll alert the police lol. Like they do in some libraries

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Of course, it'll just tempt authors to have the phrase "monkey-wielding banana lifeboats" in their book just to stand out a bit

 

[Tsujigiri]

Winters_sorrow....have you been reading off the screen while I type again

 

[zorcarepublic]

...and as the sun set, Johvn looked out to sea and saw that, indeed, the monkey-wielding banana lifeboats were again saving lives after the last ten years of being persecuted...



Well, there's my attempt at an ending of a story with your phrase winters_sorrow...

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Winters_sorrow....have you been reading off the screen while I type again

Disturbed minds think alike it seems...

...and as the sun set, Johvn looked out to sea and saw that, indeed, the monkey-wielding banana lifeboats were again saving lives after the last ten years of being persecuted...



Well, there's my attempt at an ending of a story with your phrase winters_sorrow...

Not bad, zorcarepublic.
"The Adventures of the Monkey-Wielding Banana Lifeboats"
It almost writes itself....

Mind you, I kind of pictured them as a force for evil....

...and as the sun set, Johvn looked on in horror as the horde of monkey-wielding banana lifeboats once more attacked the shipping lanes of the East China Sea.
The shrill whooping of the monkeys brought a shiver down his spine. The lifeboats speed towards their targets, firing a group of gibbons into the rigging as they came. Surely this was the end of their voyage to Gumdrop Island??

.....to hopefully never be continued..

Or how about "The live & times of Marco Polo, the Italian missionary mint with a hole"

 

[Tsujigiri]

You have altogether too much time on your hands dude

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Not having 2 kids & a mortgage is a help..

 

[Chimeco]

it looks like an interesting read. more lifeboat monkey bananna!!! (does it matter the way I say it?)

 

[Tsujigiri]

Yes Chimeco you phillestine!!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Or if we all want to sell like Anne Rice, we'll start using some of her SIPs. Like "marble desk" (Blackwood Farm) or "double parlor" and "mortal girl"(Blood Canticle), so that they can make their way into the ad copy.

Who knew that these words would sell books?

(Obviously, where I have failed to become a best-selling author in the past is because all my desks were ormolu, and all my parlors single.)

 

[Chimeco]

Google's the only company that can rival (and does) the amazon client model. But they're not direct competitors (they aren't competing for the same market -they're products serve different purposes). Google leads by leaps and bounds Amazon, the way Amazon leads the rest of its competition as far as model building is concerned (although amazon's model is based on serving information to a user specifically tailored to that user's habits and tastes).

Anyway, the basic recipe for success is individualized tailoring. They both do it. What the hecks my point?

Well, I wanted to give you guys a link I found a few months ago, while doing my homework for a short story I was (still am sorta) writing. It sort of ties in with the topic of gathering information on personal shopping habits.

If you're still reading my diatribe, then imagine for a moment that each human radiates a personality. Literally emits their personality by way of waves. Alpha waves, delta (deep sleep), theta waves. If we had receptors to interpret these signals, we'd find our planet literally steepled in a think, cognizant blanket of collective personality. What would tie it all together? See if you can guess where I'm going with it, after viewing this link:
http://oak.psych.gatech.edu/~epic/

 

[Brian G Turner]

Yahoo! and MSN both also have big dibs on collecting information on surfer habits. That's one big reason why the big three all offer free e-mail services - it's not because they are naturally altruistic - it's because they see it as a massive investment in collecting extremely useful marketing data on a large body of users. GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! mail are just ways of collecting marketing information for the companies.

Search is another way of collecting useful marketing information - Amazon have already moved to releasing a search engine - A9 - and trying to tailor it to personal surfing habits of a user on the Amazon stores.

Google, MSN, and Yahoo! all now have their own blogging platforms, which is just another way of collecting user metrics.

All in all, we are like lab rats pressing levers - we get our free peanuts, and they get their marketing data from studying how we do it. This is all going to become a lot more overt over the coming years - MSN already has its own advertising program coming out over the next year or so which will eventually allow advertisers to show ads not according to website, but targets consumers. You want to target your ads at divorced women, between the age of 30-35? Not a problem - enter your ad here and it will be displayed in the places they surf most.

 

[zorcarepublic]

Or how about "The live & times of Marco Polo, the Italian missionary mint with a hole

You made everyone look at me when I just burst out laughing after reading that.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

You made everyone look at me when I just burst out laughing after reading that.

That's alright - It's important to have a sense of humour at work. It allows you to grin inanely at the face of authority

I may expand on the times of the missionary mint to include his visit to Xanadu and his meeting with Coca-Cola Cublai Khan....

 

[zorcarepublic]

Yeah, a sense of humour. Right. Whats that?

 

[PETERTHEKNOTTER]

Or if we all want to sell like Anne Rice, we'll start using some of her SIPs. Like "marble desk" (Blackwood Farm) or "double parlor" and "mortal girl"(Blood Canticle), so that they can make their way into the ad copy.

Who knew that these words would sell books?

(Obviously, where I have failed to become a best-selling author in the past is because all my desks were ormolu, and all my parlors single.)

Parlous....

 

[Harpo]

Parlous....

@BAYLOR you have a new contender for your champion thread revivalist title

 

[Astro Pen]

And in the end the algorithms refined and refined until there was but one book. And once you had read that perfect book you would need to read no other.
Music had got there earlier and every elevator, radio station and airport lobby repeated the refrain. Welcome to the Hotel California and there was no other music surviving in the world because the algorithm had spoken.