Sometimes, just a little slow...

Well, I was going to say that it just occurred to me, because sometimes I'm a little slow... that you don't have to be in a store to shop from your phone (as reported by yours truly here yesterday), you know. You could be in bed, or the car, or on the bus, or, well, you know, wherever, and someone asks you "hey, what's that awesome cream you put on my face the other day, I want some." Text Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream (which is amazing, by the way) to 262966 and lo and behold... it turns out that does not work so well. Mr. Bezos, you got some 'splaining to do, because first I get
1) "Marking Time Cazalet Chronicle Vol 2 - BOOK $11.20
what is that? No, seriously, what is that? Have you ever even heard of that book?
I text again with quotation marks and get:
1) "Frumpy to Foxy in 15 Minutes Flat: Style Advice for Every Woman - BOOK $12.21
Is that a hint? Well, I didn't try again after that - I was a little scared what they might send me next.

Amazon's site says: "Any item sold by Amazon.com can be purchased through TextBuyIt." Ya think? When I searched the same phrase on Amazon.com, guess what came up? You won't believe it. No, really. Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream. Go figure. I guess there are still some kinks in the system.

Then I tried texting "William Goldman screenplay" and got back
1) William Goldman: Five...-BOOK $14.96
2) Charlie Rose December 9...-DVD $24.95

I texted back "1d" (for more details on the first) and learned it was a book of five screenplays, plus essays, by WG himself, though it didn't tell me which ones. Seems like the intellectual part of the system is working better than the superficial part. Is Amazon trying to tell us something?

Anyway, so it's not just for comparison shopping. You can shop at Amazon anywhere you get cell reception - provided you want to buy a book and not a lipstick.

But did you know that you can also pay people on your mobile phone through Amazon? I'm still not exactly clear on this, but somehow you text Amazon with something like the following "pay 5" followed by the other person's mobile number, and it sends $5 to that person. I don't know how that works. But it seems kind of cool. And kind of Orwellian-ly creepy at the same time.