Bookworms

[orolan]

Ran across this polygraph book while running a search. Nothing remarkable about it. But follow the link anyway. When the page comes up, look at the box in the lower right titled "People Also Bought", which shows other books purchased at the same time. Note the prevailing topic and draw your own conclusions.

http://www.911hotjobs.com/bookstore/pn26.htm

[Torpedo]

orolan.....you folks really know how to "spin"...and you get on us for "spinning"?...no where in that advetisement does it say...or imply...that the "associated" books were bought at the same time. You give the impression that there was a flood of purchases at the same time.  Is one to believe that when you go into Books-A-Million that people will be standing in line with all there books in their arms?  Yes, there might be some interest in these books....it is called marketing.  Maybe you have stock in the publishing company...or maybe you are the author.

[Marty]

orolan, torpedo,

The way these work is that buyers are tracked and books that are bought are cross referenced. The advantage to the seller is that by providing a list of books that have been most often bought by buyers of the highlighted article, there is an increased likelyhood that the buyer will find one or more of those books interesting. The advantage to the buyer is that it becomes easier to browse interesting books and find related info. They track cumulative buying using long term cookies and/or account commonalities. It's all quite automated.

There is nothing surprising in that one of the few legal uses of the polygraph is LE screening.

-Marty

[orolan]

Torpedo,

Nowhere did I "imply" or "spin" anything. I said "draw YOUR OWN conclusions"(emphasis added). I did not in any way state my own conclusions. You are imagining in your own mind what you "think" my conclusion would be, IF I had stated it.
Did you bother to "click on title" as instructed? If you had, you would have seen for example that the "Law Enforcement Written Exams Book" is being offered as a package deal with the Deception book. Ditto "ARCO's Police Officer Exam Book", "Become an Officer in Law Enforcement", "Cliff's Police Officer Exam Book" and "24 Hours To Law Enforcement Exams". True, this is called "marketing". But if they thought nobody would buy, they wouldn't offer the deals.
My stock portfolio is quite diversified and it is entirely possible that one of my mutual funds holds shares of the publishing company, but I can't definitively say. And no, I am not the author of the book.  

[triple x]

Orolan,

Marty is correct. The online bookstores such as Barns & Nobles and amazon.com etc., track what customer's purchase. When an order is placed for a book, the online bookstore "recommends" other books similar in interest.

The link you provided simply recommends other books similar in nature and interest to potential online shopping customers. Marty is correct in saying the online bookstores do this hopeful that you will buy more books. As for drawing "our own conclusion"... the conclusion would purely be that the online bookstore you reference, has simply suggested other books that closely match the "key word" search for books relating to polygraph. Nothing is implied here, and nothing to "draw any particular conclusion" with respect to polygraph testing. Also, the referenced link you refer to does not suggest any other books were all bought at the same time; only similar in nature.


Respectfully
triple x

[orolan]

Marty and triple x,

You are both correct in your explanations regarding how online bookstores determine what other books a customer may want to purchase. And I could see where a person searching for polygraph books may also search for books related to law enforcement employment. After all, the customer may actually want to BE a polygrapher.
All of this would be great, if I had posted a link to Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com. But I didn't. Questions arise when you go to "home" and realize that this is not an online book retailer but a site dedicated to those seeking employment in law enforcement,  among other public service jobs.
There are 3 books on this site listed under the polygraph category. One of them is an informational book offering up a sample of what an applicant can expect. The other two are dedicated SOLEY to manipulating a polygraph exam.
Personally, I would draw the conclusion that applicants are sufficiently worried about the accuracy of a polygraph to warrant this site selling these books.

[Marty]

Orolan,

You are correct that the 911jobs site is not doing an automated xref. Amazon has a "partners" program that I suspected it was but the HTML source shows no sign of that. The poly books were probably added from popular request. That it was done on a site that makes most of it's money selling LE material is interesting.

-Marty