Did Amazon Really Fail This Weekend? The Twittersphere Says “Yes,” Online Retailer Says “Glitch.”
by Peter Kafka
Posted on April 12, 2009 at 7:33 PM PT
Last fall, a small but vocal group of Twitterers managed to shame Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) into apologizing for one of its Motrin ads.
This weekend’s replay: a howl of outrage, amplified and directed via Twitter at Amazon (AMZN), which may or may not have instituted a boneheaded policy regarding “adult” books on its site. Or “adult” books aimed at gay and lesbian readers. Or something.
What happened? It’s not clear. But search for “#amazonfail” on Twitter and you’ll find that many Twitterers believe that Amazon has stripped the sales rankings from all manner of books that deal with gay and lesbian, and/or “adult” topics, making them less likely to appear on the site. In essence, the Twittersphere charges Amazon with trying to hide material it finds distasteful or that it thinks some customers will find distasteful.
Example: Amazon’s listing for Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain” doesn’t have a sales rank. But the author’s newest book does have one.
From what I can tell, the meme started up on Saturday, but didn’t start building steam until Sunday afternoon, when I noticed mild-mannered types like New Yorker writer Susan Orlean railing about Amazon on Twitter.
And it’s still going. As I type this, after 10 p.m. Eastern on Sunday night, the “amazonfail” keyword is generating a dozen hits on Twitter’s search page every couple of seconds.
Amazon hasn’t helped its case by remaining more or less mute throughout the weekend. But, by Sunday evening, the retailer had issued the same line to me and several other reporters: “We recently discovered a glitch to our Amazon sales rank feature that is in the process of being fixed. We’re working to correct the problem as quickly as possible.”
Not a terribly illuminating response, and I’ve asked for more information. But no matter what really happened, Amazon now has a real problem on its hands: A vocal group of people believe the retailer has discriminated in some way against gays and lesbians.
When Johnson & Johnson got caught in the Twitterstorm last fall, it had a relatively easy way out: A profuse apology to people it had offended. But Motrin has a very specific customer base and Amazon has a much broader one, and anything it says or does regarding gays, lesbians and “adult” material of any stripe is bound to upset some people.
But the company should do the right thing and clear the air anyway.
UPDATE: Here’s an apology from Amazon, which doesn’t really explain what happened, but says the problem didn’t just affect books aimed at gays and lesbians.
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Comments
What’s upsetting for me in all of this is I just purchased the $360 Kindle 2 reader from Amazon.com. It’s a great gadget, but to know that Amazon holds Gays in Lesbians in such contempt makes me regret having put out the cash, ESPECIALLY in today’s economy. If you want to show Amazon your disapproval, just boycott the Kindle 2 and don’t purchase any of their DVDs on demand from your Netflix Roku player. They’ll take note.I really hope they resolve this soon, however, because Amazon is my favorite place to shop on line.
Posted by Mark Young at April 13th, 2009 at 1:09 amI was curious, so I looked. Brokeback Mountain DOES have a sales ranking. Not only that, it also has a ‘popular in these categories’ that shows Brokeback #1 in its category.
If you find 1% of Amazon customers who actually CARE about sales ranking, I’ll be surprised. I buy from Amazon monthly. I always find what I want. I don’t depend on other people’s tastes or web statistics that supposedly tell me where MY taste falls. How dumb.
Yes I own Brokeback Mountain. It’s a good story. That is all anyone needs to know.
Posted by Aaron Jamey at April 13th, 2009 at 8:20 amAaron, it isn’t just the sales rankings. Many of their so-called “adult” titles aren’t showing up in search results either, without out browsing to their “adult” section first before searching.
The worst example is that self-help books for the GLBTQ community have been removed from search results and sales rankings, while books instructing parents how to turn their GLBTQ kids “straight” again *haven’t* been removed.
That example is about as offensive as can be in terms of labeling things as “adult” or not. It reeks of being an all-out assault on the GLBTQ community.
Posted by Matthew Harms at April 13th, 2009 at 8:52 amAnd to add to the previous comment, there is proof this has been going on for months, as opposed to an over the weekend “glitch”, like they want everyone to believe. I seriously suggest you read this:
http://craigspoplife.blogspot......eline.html
Posted by Toni Matthews - El at April 13th, 2009 at 9:34 amWell, apparently folks search way differently than I do. I searched ‘Brokeback …’ and it showed up under the search box as I was typing.
I then went looking for ‘Beautiful Thing’, which a not-gay female friend recommended today while we were talking about this. In addition to appearing, it also brought up Latter Days and Shelter as ‘related items’.
So, I don’t see what the issue is. I search. I find. Always have found what I searched, ‘adult’ or not.
Convince me – give me a name of an adult title you can’t find in search results.
By the way, I bought Beautiful Thing, Shelter and Latter Days just now. Obviously I found what my friend recommended, and then some. That, as an Amazon customer, is what I want.
Posted by Aaron Jamey at April 13th, 2009 at 5:22 pm