4 ms·

I'm kind of amazed that the two links to Amazon and Barnes & Noble still work. Talk about backwards compatibility! Amazon has probably changed dozens if not hu

I'm kind of amazed that the two links to Amazon and Barnes & Noble still work. Talk about backwards compatibility! Amazon has probably changed dozens if not hundred of things server side since 1999. Old link - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517149257/o/qid=929505204/sr=2-1/002-9367729-7762218 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517149257/o/qid=9295... New link - http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Douglas-Adams/dp/0517149257 http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Douglas-Ada...

InTheSwiss 13y ago
Have a read of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Standard_Identification_... That is how Amazon can maintain such good link backwards compatibility although for books this is even easier as it just has to parse the ISBN and job done. ASIN allows them to tag everything ever on Amazon and keep it linkable. Good future planning from back in the 90s though I guess.
- ToastyMallows 13y ago
  Thanks for the link. Very good planning indeed.
- makmanalp 13y ago
  Wow, I'd always wondered what the heck obidos was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obidos_%28software%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obidos_%28software%29
  - blueskin_ 13y ago
    Amazing. I wondered that on just about every link. Same with old BBC News links with /hi/ (if anyone knows what that one is, go ahead).
evilpie 13y ago
Basically just this part is relevant: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517149257/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517149257/. Which seems to be the ISBN-10. I don't think this crazy to keep working, they probably have some other ways of looking up a book based on the ISBN.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
  Yeah, but the fact they managed to keep all the redirects working since that version is laudable. Sometimes this is scattered somewhere between the codebase and server configuration and gets lost between migrations.

InTheSwiss 13y ago

Have a read of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Standard_Identification_... That is how Amazon can maintain such good link backwards compatibility although for books this is even easier as it just has to parse the ISBN and job done. ASIN allows them to tag everything ever on Amazon and keep it linkable. Good future planning from back in the 90s though I guess.

ToastyMallows 13y ago
Thanks for the link. Very good planning indeed.
makmanalp 13y ago
Wow, I'd always wondered what the heck obidos was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obidos_%28software%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obidos_%28software%29
- blueskin_ 13y ago
  Amazing. I wondered that on just about every link. Same with old BBC News links with /hi/ (if anyone knows what that one is, go ahead).

evilpie 13y ago

Basically just this part is relevant: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517149257/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517149257/. Which seems to be the ISBN-10. I don't think this crazy to keep working, they probably have some other ways of looking up a book based on the ISBN.

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
Yeah, but the fact they managed to keep all the redirects working since that version is laudable. Sometimes this is scattered somewhere between the codebase and server configuration and gets lost between migrations.