On 11-08-2002, Tom Parmenter wrote thusly :
|At 01:27 AM 8/11/02 -0400, Tom Parmenter wrote: |>I looked up Louis Armstrong, which I wrote much of in wikipedia, and |>found no article, but ads for ten different Louis Armstrong books, and |>ads for a bunch of other books. It seems to be an attempt to get |>people to go to Amazon. Makes me think twice about the proposal to |>make the wikipedia's ISBN links go to a bookstore, even though it is |>really not the same. |Making the ISBN links go to a book store search engine giving you |comparative prices is very different from Amazon links which usually are |quite a ways down the list if you search for comparative prices especially |if you add shipping. I think Addall or ABE search links are pretty helpful |since they can return enormous amounts of useful information. Amazon and |BN live off book buyers ignorance. Well, maybe, but BN/Amazon are a well of information for Wikipedia writers too. I usually get my ISBN numbers there, check book titles, etc.
Interestingly a site (e-zine?) called "Write away" for internet writers recommends "The Fact Factory" as "Great Free Online Encyclopedia" See for yourself: http://www.heislerink.com/cgi-bin/MaxWebPortal_V10
Regards, kpjas