Titles disappearing from Connect? - Page 2

Nogg · 06-10-2007, 11:30 PM

I agree JSWolf. I work in the software industry and if one of my programmers tried to pass off the Connect program (as it is now) as finished, he'd end up with a lot of unpaid overtime filling his weekends. The problem as I see it is that we are early adopters of the medium as well as the hardware. Sony just isn't ready to spend the money to make the experience seamless.

I'm no Apple fanboy, but if only they'd take a crack at this...

NatCh · 06-11-2007, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

They do? Two fields were searched and no result. How is that working on it?
<snip>
It's a POS. And that's being nice.

Well, back in October, no one would have been nice enough to refer to the search function as a POS. It really was that bad. Almost completely dysfunctional. Now it's gotten to the point of "kinda works ... sorta," I'm not saying it's fixed, just that it has come a ways.

I'm not giving them a pass, don't misunderstand, I'm just saying that it's not as bad as it used to be. As a programmer myself, I'd've put in that weekend time on my own initiative if this was where I was at on the thing, I wouldn't have needed anyone to 'suggest' to me that it needed more work.

The really scary thing is that the ConnStore was around for quite a while, in its music incarnation, before the e-books jumped in the mix. I'm glad I wasn't involved in that really early stuff, it must have been positively brutal.

JSWolf · 06-11-2007, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

Well, back in October, no one would have been nice enough to refer to the search function as a POS. It really was that bad. Almost completely dysfunctional. Now it's gotten to the point of "kinda works ... sorta," I'm not saying it's fixed, just that it has come a ways.

I'm not giving them a pass, don't misunderstand, I'm just saying that it's not as bad as it used to be. As a programmer myself, I'd've put in that weekend time on my own initiative if this was where I was at on the thing, I wouldn't have needed anyone to 'suggest' to me that it needed more work.

The really scary thing is that the ConnStore was around for quite a while, in its music incarnation, before the e-books jumped in the mix. I'm glad I wasn't involved in that really early stuff, it must have been positively brutal.

Callinmg the ebook Connect store a POS is my being nice for the forum. If I cannot go to the store, put in the search term I want and have it come up with the book I want when they DO have it available is atrociaous. It's bad business for both Sony and me. I know how to convert other format books to LRF. So, if I cannot find it there, I'll go elsewhere, buy it in a different format, convert it and enjoy (hopefully). But the problem is that unless Sony fixes things, they will lose out on a lot of sales.

Take your average person thinking of buying a Sony Reader. That person might not know of MobileRead and all the free goodies. Might not know of the other sites that have free books. Might just know to go to the Connect store. So that person goes and does some looking/searching and cannot really find what he/she wants and goes away and does not bother to purchase a Sony because the books that are wanted are not coming up when looked for when they are available.

Sony is doing themselves and us a disservice when they have a search engine that doesn't work well enough. When I put in the title or the ISBN, there is no reason the book should not show if they have it. I should not have to find the author and then click the author field to find a book that won;t work with search. Also, the website end lets me define what field I am inputting. The Connect software only allows a keyword search from the search field. The category field box is broken. Not just flakey, but 100% broken. There is no reason for this to be foisted on the unsuspecting public. Hey, if Sony would hire me as a beta tester, I'd be happy to give them my input and help them get it working. But for now, it's a POS (being nice) and not worth my time other then to spend the remaining amount of my $50 credit. I'll be sticking with LIT format purchases and converting. Sorry Sony, but you fucked up big time and are going to lose your ass on this one. Good luck with that POS.

kacir · 06-11-2007, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sony .. LISTEN UP! FIX your shit before you find everyone on Mobileread with a Sony Reader buying LIT format books and not bothering with LRX books once the credit is used up. ... Some of the formatting is crap, the functionality of the Connect store is awful. When you test your shit, use geeks. They'll find the bugs.

Excellent post.

I have tried to look for
pratchett
magic
color
colour
ISBN number - 0061020710
SONY *INTERNAL* Ebook ISBN - 9780061367502
and still - "The color of magic" failed to apear among the search results.

How difficult is it to program a search mechanizm that would be able to locate record in a single table of books that has whooping [:GASP:] several thousand records.

NatCh · 06-11-2007, 09:49 AM

Hey, I wasn't actually arguing with you, JSWolf! In fact, I agree that the thing is still pretty well hosed, and that it's got to be negatively impacting their revenues. (I wonder if they've cross-checked the terms folks search for against what they actually have and compared that to sales ... nah, probably not.)

I was just trying to answer your question as to what I meant when I said that they'd been working on it.

JSWolf · 06-11-2007, 09:57 AM

When I was browsing the Fantasy section a Star Trek book came up. They have a seperate category for Star Trek books. Looks like another blunder on their part. The more I see of the mistakes they've made, the worse it looks.

People complained about the search results and that to me wasn't an issue especially if you did not have the exact spelling of what you were looking for. But now, if it's not (my guess) input correctly, you cannot search for it no matter how you go about searching. The only way to find a book you want is to HOPE that you can at least search for something by that author and find it.

NatCh · 06-11-2007, 10:12 AM

Yeah, the categories are an entirely different, um ... circle of mutual gratification, to put it delicately.

HarryT · 06-11-2007, 10:23 AM

In fairness, when people report mistakes to them, they do seem pretty good at putting them right quickly. Give them credit for that, at least.

rmeister0 · 06-11-2007, 10:45 AM

This entire issue would also be moot if you could just browse properly. Let me select a genre, give me an alphabetical list of authors, click on an author, and see a list of all the book titles. It is really, really hard to do a decent drill-down on that store.

The iTunes store makes it much easier to part you from your money.

JSWolf · 06-11-2007, 12:55 PM

But there is no chance in hell I would ever spend any money at the iTunes store. I will no pay for music that is DRM and missing the bits that came from the CD. I will never ever pay for lossy music and DRM just makes it that much worse.

DRM should be called DMR (Destroy My Rights).

NatCh · 06-11-2007, 01:13 PM

What about the new EMI stuff that has no DRM, and is better quality? Not giving you a hard time, just asking.

JSWolf · 06-11-2007, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

What about the new EMI stuff that has no DRM, and is better quality? Not giving you a hard time, just asking.

It is a step in the right direction with the higher bitrate and lack of DRM. But it's still lossy. If I was to purchase music, I want it to have at least all the bits that come on the CD version. There are lossless compression formats out there and very easy to use. I would just feel cheated if I paid for music and didn't get it all.

NatCh · 06-11-2007, 02:17 PM

Fair enough.

Nogg · 06-12-2007, 09:32 PM

So after a couple days of going back and forth with Sony email customer support, just trying to get them to acknowledge the issue...

They sent me an email in which they described the WORKAROUND that NatCh had already discovered and that I had detailed to them in my initial email.

I sent them a semi-nasty response asking them not to regurgitate hacks to me and to try fixing their broken software.

I shall not rest!

NatCh · 06-12-2007, 09:39 PM

You GO!

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06-10-2007, 11:30 PM	#16
Nogg Literate! Posts: 256 Karma: 2247 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: PRS-500	I agree JSWolf. I work in the software industry and if one of my programmers tried to pass off the Connect program (as it is now) as finished, he'd end up with a lot of unpaid overtime filling his weekends. The problem as I see it is that we are early adopters of the medium as well as the hardware. Sony just isn't ready to spend the money to make the experience seamless. I'm no Apple fanboy, but if only they'd take a crack at this...

06-11-2007, 09:49 AM	#20
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Hey, I wasn't actually arguing with you, JSWolf! In fact, I agree that the thing is still pretty well hosed, and that it's got to be negatively impacting their revenues. (I wonder if they've cross-checked the terms folks search for against what they actually have and compared that to sales ... nah, probably not.) I was just trying to answer your question as to what I meant when I said that they'd been working on it.

06-11-2007, 09:57 AM	#21
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,796 Karma: 146391129 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	When I was browsing the Fantasy section a Star Trek book came up. They have a seperate category for Star Trek books. Looks like another blunder on their part. The more I see of the mistakes they've made, the worse it looks. People complained about the search results and that to me wasn't an issue especially if you did not have the exact spelling of what you were looking for. But now, if it's not (my guess) input correctly, you cannot search for it no matter how you go about searching. The only way to find a book you want is to HOPE that you can at least search for something by that author and find it.

06-11-2007, 10:12 AM	#22
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Yeah, the categories are an entirely different, um ... circle of mutual gratification, to put it delicately.

06-11-2007, 10:23 AM	#23
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,556 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	In fairness, when people report mistakes to them, they do seem pretty good at putting them right quickly. Give them credit for that, at least.

06-11-2007, 10:45 AM	#24
rmeister0 Addict Posts: 270 Karma: 298 Join Date: Mar 2005	This entire issue would also be moot if you could just browse properly. Let me select a genre, give me an alphabetical list of authors, click on an author, and see a list of all the book titles. It is really, really hard to do a decent drill-down on that store. The iTunes store makes it much easier to part you from your money.

06-11-2007, 12:55 PM	#25
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,796 Karma: 146391129 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	But there is no chance in hell I would ever spend any money at the iTunes store. I will no pay for music that is DRM and missing the bits that came from the CD. I will never ever pay for lossy music and DRM just makes it that much worse. DRM should be called DMR (Destroy My Rights).

06-11-2007, 01:13 PM	#26
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	What about the new EMI stuff that has no DRM, and is better quality? Not giving you a hard time, just asking.

06-11-2007, 02:17 PM	#28
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Fair enough.

06-12-2007, 09:32 PM	#29
Nogg Literate! Posts: 256 Karma: 2247 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: PRS-500	So after a couple days of going back and forth with Sony email customer support, just trying to get them to acknowledge the issue... They sent me an email in which they described the WORKAROUND that NatCh had already discovered and that I had detailed to them in my initial email. I sent them a semi-nasty response asking them not to regurgitate hacks to me and to try fixing their broken software. I shall not rest!

06-12-2007, 09:39 PM	#30
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	You GO!