[Sigia-l] Findability (classification and search)

[Jay Linden]

Listera wrote:

 > "Gerry McGovern" wrote:
 >
 >
 >> I went to Iomega wanting a free driver, but I really needed
 >> QuikSync. I just didn't know I needed it, because I didn't know
 >> it existed. This example illustrates where information
 >> architecture (IA) can become a very effective tool of marketing.
 >>
 >> I believe that a core objective of IA is to place content in
 >> context. IA should help answer the question: What is this piece
 >> of content related to?
 >>
 >
 > So you're saying that you find Amazon's contextualization whereby if
 >  you look for a book you also get to see what kind of underwear
 > people are buying useful? Effective?


I don't think that was contextualization.  I think it was an underwear 
ad.  (More specifically, I think it was promoting the fact that you can 
now buy underwear on Amazon.com.

More germane, and I'll leave it for others to speculate, I think Amazon 
was sufficiently confident in its interface, and in people's 
understanding of it, that it believed that it could best promote the 
fact that it now sells underwear by "hiding" the promotion in the place 
where it feels (correctly) that the whole universe looks for 
contextualization on its site.

And yes, effective.  The message is out.

Whether selling underwear is an effective market strategy for Amazon is 
grist for a different forum, I think.



-- 

Jay Linden                                    Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
e-business Advisor, IBM Global Services                 jeigh at rogers.com
These onions are MINE and not those of my EMPLOYER.
Wait, that should be OPINIONS. I have no idea whose onions these are.