Quote:
Originally Posted by melksnor
Maybe a stupid question, but has anyone seen the communication between Amazon's servers and a kindle that toggles features? Is that something that's observable with a tool like wireshark?
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The
Experimentation & Optimization group at Amazon runs WebLab to perform A/B testing on Amazon products and services. The interface to this for Kindle devices is called KWIS. (I don't know what that acronym stands for.)
The tests performed by WebLab are called "experiments" and the new features being tested are called "treatments". (Some of the terminology is reminiscent of pharmaceutical trials.) Interaction with WebLab servers appears to be over HTTP, delivering XML files such as this:
Code:
<weblabExperimentToTreatmentMap>
<entry>
<key>AUTOSHELF_WEBLAB_KFA_78048</key>
<value>T2</value>
</entry>
</weblabExperimentToTreatmentMap>
<pollInterval>21600</pollInterval>
This enables treatment #2 for experiment AUTOSHELF_WEBLAB_KFA_78048.