This reading is about online algorithms as an economic model.

Using the example of Touching the Void sales on Amazon.com, Anderson explains how algorithms can show service providers like Amazon, what is trending and how best to influence audiences and their purchasing.

Amazon brought the book Touching the Void back from obscurity by placing it next to another survival book where it thrived so much it out sold the first book.

An “analysis of the sales data and trends” from these services demonstrates to Amazon where they need to invest their time and advertising to achieve highest sales.

These statistics result from the links a computer tracks that a person is clicking on.