Google Spreadsheet of Sony eBook Store category totals

anotherchance · 01-26-2008, 10:15 PM

I just spent the last half-hour putting this Google spreadsheet together as a proof of concept. It should make keeping track of the totals on the Sony site very easy, and I'd be able to update it about once a week. The chart will update automatically as new data is added.

Here's the link to the spreadsheet:
View Spreadsheet

The chart itself has its own image URL although it doesn't look like I can embed it on this forum as an IMG. It should embed in other webpages as the SRC of an <img> tag.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...2&output=image

Zevs · 01-27-2008, 02:16 AM

Thanks very much for this Anotherchance!

You should also talk to Vivaldirules about this I think, he is also following the number of books in different categories, see the link below

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16810

Zevs

anotherchance · 01-27-2008, 08:11 AM

Thanks. I've found the TXT file with the historical data in it. I'll see if I can import it to my spreadsheet today.

Zevs · 01-27-2008, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anotherchance

Thanks. I've found the TXT file with the historical data in it. I'll see if I can import it to my spreadsheet today.

Yes, that would be great!

Zevs

anotherchance · 01-27-2008, 08:24 AM

Done it. Easy peasy. Republished spreadsheet is now available.

vivaldirules · 01-27-2008, 10:05 AM

Well done!

Zevs · 01-27-2008, 10:11 AM

Very good anotherchance!

Thanks for doing this! Interesting to see how much Science & Nature has grown! Must be a lot if interest there! I'm disappointed by the change in Travel books, very slow increase there. Would have expected that section to be bigger, but have noticed that there were very few additions during last year.

Zevs

vivaldirules · 01-27-2008, 10:59 AM

Anyone interested in doing something like this for other vendors, particularly Amazon? I think many people will be insterested in seeing data on the growth of ebook titles for sale.

HarryT · 01-29-2008, 02:29 AM

How are you allowing for books which are present in multiple categories? What proportion of books are in multiple categories?

anotherchance · 01-29-2008, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

How are you allowing for books which are present in multiple categories? What proportion of books are in multiple categories?

I'm not, and the user who'd been collecting the data back to September hadn't been either. I don't think there's really a way we can accurately calculate how many books cross categories, but even if you call it 25% (seems unlikely), then we're still looking at a good 25,000 books.

anotherchance · 02-02-2008, 12:08 PM

Nearly 2000 titles have been added in the past week, about 1000 of which were science-fiction. 34,020 is the new grand total. I've updated the Google Spreadsheet this morning. I also modified the URLs in the first column to be sorted by "newly added".

It took me about 2 minutes to update this spreadsheet, as I had all 19 URLs in a Firefox Bookmark folder and opened all 19 pages in new tabs with a single click. It was then so easy to run down the tab list and gather the latest totals for the spreadsheet.

Zevs · 02-02-2008, 12:21 PM

Thanks again Anotherchance for doing this! I guess they finally realized people do like SF! I think a number of people will be happy

Zevs

JSWolf · 02-02-2008, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

How are you allowing for books which are present in multiple categories? What proportion of books are in multiple categories?

It's same sort of numbering as people are using for Amazon's eBooks. Just getting the raw number and not weeding out any possible dupes.

On Amazon's website there are 9 different versions of Moby Dick for the Kindle. So if we weed out stuff like this, then we'll end up easily with less then 100,000 eBooks for the Kindle.

Yes, there are dupes in the count from Sony's site. Who really is going tog o and weed out the dupes? It's not worth anyone's time and effort to do so.

vivaldirules · 02-02-2008, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes, there are dupes in the count from Sony's site. Who really is going tog o and weed out the dupes? It's not worth anyone's time and effort to do so.

It's easy to at least get a feel for how many duplicate entries exist on the Sony website. Just search for a particular title or author within a given category and repeat that search in several other likely categories. For example, search for ebooks by Poe in Fiction and Literature and there are eleven ebooks shown with him as author. Do the same search under the category Horror or under Mysteries and Thrillers and there are zero listed. I have done this type of searching several times and I'm not sure if I ever found even one title listed in more than one category. So my impression is that the total number of ebooks available at the Sony site is closely approximated by the sum of the total ebooks found in each category. If someone finds something different, it would be good to know that.

vivaldirules · 02-02-2008, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I have done this type of searching several times and I'm not sure if I ever found even one title listed in more than one category.

Well, I just found a few duplicates. Search for Clinton under Biographies and under Politics and Government and a few of the hits appear in both categories. I've tried a dozen other searches of likely duplicates and haven't found any.

01-26-2008, 10:15 PM	#1
anotherchance Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 666 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA Device: PRS-505	Google Spreadsheet of Sony eBook Store category totals I just spent the last half-hour putting this Google spreadsheet together as a proof of concept. It should make keeping track of the totals on the Sony site very easy, and I'd be able to update it about once a week. The chart will update automatically as new data is added. Here's the link to the spreadsheet: View Spreadsheet The chart itself has its own image URL although it doesn't look like I can embed it on this forum as an IMG. It should embed in other webpages as the SRC of an <img> tag. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...2&output=image Last edited by anotherchance; 01-27-2008 at 08:54 AM. Reason: redundant sentence, now I have more data

01-27-2008, 08:24 AM	#5
anotherchance Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 666 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA Device: PRS-505	Done it. Easy peasy. Republished spreadsheet is now available. Last edited by anotherchance; 01-27-2008 at 08:43 AM. Reason: add link

02-02-2008, 12:08 PM	#11
anotherchance Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 666 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA Device: PRS-505	Nearly 2000 titles have been added in the past week, about 1000 of which were science-fiction. 34,020 is the new grand total. I've updated the Google Spreadsheet this morning. I also modified the URLs in the first column to be sorted by "newly added". It took me about 2 minutes to update this spreadsheet, as I had all 19 URLs in a Firefox Bookmark folder and opened all 19 pages in new tabs with a single click. It was then so easy to run down the tab list and gather the latest totals for the spreadsheet. Last edited by anotherchance; 02-02-2008 at 12:19 PM.

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01-27-2008, 02:16 AM	#2
Zevs Book lover!! Posts: 133 Karma: 182 Join Date: Jan 2007 Device: Sony Reader 505; Nowadays Stanza, Kindle, Txtr and Bluefire on iPhone	Thanks very much for this Anotherchance! You should also talk to Vivaldirules about this I think, he is also following the number of books in different categories, see the link below https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16810 Zevs

01-27-2008, 08:11 AM	#3
anotherchance Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 666 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA Device: PRS-505	Thanks. I've found the TXT file with the historical data in it. I'll see if I can import it to my spreadsheet today.

01-27-2008, 10:05 AM	#6
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Well done!

01-27-2008, 10:11 AM	#7
Zevs Book lover!! Posts: 133 Karma: 182 Join Date: Jan 2007 Device: Sony Reader 505; Nowadays Stanza, Kindle, Txtr and Bluefire on iPhone	Very good anotherchance! Thanks for doing this! Interesting to see how much Science & Nature has grown! Must be a lot if interest there! I'm disappointed by the change in Travel books, very slow increase there. Would have expected that section to be bigger, but have noticed that there were very few additions during last year. Zevs

01-27-2008, 10:59 AM	#8
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Anyone interested in doing something like this for other vendors, particularly Amazon? I think many people will be insterested in seeing data on the growth of ebook titles for sale.

01-29-2008, 02:29 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	How are you allowing for books which are present in multiple categories? What proportion of books are in multiple categories?

02-02-2008, 12:21 PM	#12
Zevs Book lover!! Posts: 133 Karma: 182 Join Date: Jan 2007 Device: Sony Reader 505; Nowadays Stanza, Kindle, Txtr and Bluefire on iPhone	Thanks again Anotherchance for doing this! I guess they finally realized people do like SF! I think a number of people will be happy Zevs

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